Had it gone to plan the Bullet would have been a spectacular comeback for a company that in decades past made some spectacularly good cars, in defiance of the firm’s long-term financial precariousness and reputation for eccentricity. But it is likely no more than a handful of Bullets were ever made. Frazer Nash Research Ltd had a compulsory winding-up order against it in 2018.
“It is with regret that we have seen another iconic UK brand failing to deliver in a changing world,” was the tough verdict this week of Bristol’s joint liquidators, the Frost Group Ltd. Director Jeremy Frost added: “We have already received numerous enquires relating to the company’s assets and we are hopeful that we will be able to salvage some value for creditors as well as allow some memory of a former giant of British Industry to remain.”
In the statement on Twitter, the owners’ club added that it was “actively engaged with the liquidators to preserve what we can of the heritage and associated spares for the marque. It's our hope that the assets can be kept together and, as a priority, a safe home can be found for the archive."
As GRR found in 2016 when we were allowed into the basement of the Bristol Cars showroom on Kensington High Street – the private lair of former Bristol principal Anthony Crook – there is plenty of archive material there: more than 70 years worth of new-model drawings, blueprints, build sheets, brochures, despatch notes, sales receipts and assorted memorabilia. Much of it was personal to Tony Crook, the racing driver turned salesman who regarded Bristol as his personal fiefdom, as Andrew Frankel recently wrote about for GRR.