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Lord knows what we're meant to make of the Fighter, but its spec certainly takes the fight to all sorts of higher-profile names. Still Chrysler-related, motive force now comes from the Viper's all-aluminium 8.0-litre V10, modified to produce up to 550bhp at 5,600rpm. Like the Viper, the gearing is so intergalactic that the car will hit 60mph in first gear and cruise at 100mph at a practically comatose 2,450rpm. The unit's torque, which spreads tarmac-thick throughout the rev range, peaks at 525lb ft at 4,200rpm. Which is useful.

All of this is just a side-show, though. Bristol, keen to reinforce the aviation connection, admits styling considerations were secondary to aerodynamic ones. Some might say that explains a few things about the Fighter's appearance, but the fact is that the thing is very slippery: it has a drag co-efficient of 0.25. Bristol claims that the body's aero is so good at generating downforce and defeating lift that it doesn't need the usual battery of wings and spoilers.

I wonder what Bristol knows that Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes, with their computational fluid dynamics experts, 24/7 wind tunnels and enormous budgets, don't.

Quite a bit by the sounds of it: during development, Bristol's boffins workedout the Fighter's lift and drag by hand using rulers and protractors, and when they verified them in a wind tunnel, found they were only out by three and one per cent respectively. If I was Ron Dennis I'd be on the blower right now...

All of which leaves the Fighter looking streamlined in a Forties kind of way. Sort of accidentally retro. It has a long, low, smooth bonnet with a chamfered nose and rather piggy-looking lights, and an elongated tail. The teardrop-shaped cabin helps optimise those aero numbers but also has so much glass - including a windscreen which wraps around in the time-honoured tradition - that it really is like sitting in the cockpit of an old aeroplane.

The Fighter also has gull-wing doors, which Bristol meekly justifies on the grounds that it ensures 'easy entry and exit even in confined spaces'. Unless you're upside down in a ditch, of course.

Amusingly, you pull the doors shut once inside using an inertia reel. One of Tony Crook's peccadilloes was that Bristols must be practical and easy-to-use. So despite its supercar credentials and extrovert doors, once you've clambered over its fat sills, the Fighter is no more of a challenge to get used to than the similarly-sized Porsche 911.

It's possible that the reason there's so much headroom is because Crook insisted on being able to wear his favourite hat, but however daft the rationale it's seriously roomy.