Features
Deceived by flight
Instinctively, you assume the driving position you imagine an elderly war hero with a piece of shrapnel lodged in his lower back might adopt. The Fighter doesn't do absent-minded: you really have to think about what you're doing in this car. No wonder Bristol is a popular marque with the older generation. It's a proper car for proper chaps.
Which isn't to say that it's a handful, not at four- or five-tenths anyway. No fancy-pants paddle-shift sequential gearboxes in here; instead there's a proper gear-lever, connected to some proper, occasionally obstreperous gears. Actually, the transmission isn't bad at all. Bristol has successfully reworked the Viper's heavy-duty industrial shift, shortening the throw and giving it a vastly more positive action.
It still won't be rushed - the likes of the Ferrari 430 Scuderia's lightning-fast 60-millisecond change is from a galaxy far, far away - but it's accurate and satisfyingly mechanical. (Besides, the thing's so torquey you can go everywhere in fourth gear anyway.)
Handling? It may have some, but I can't be certain. Our test car is baggier than a Happy Mondays fan-club convention, and it's also running rather eccentric suspension settings. Its steering lacks feel around the centre, but the Fighter turns in with impressive conviction and accuracy. It tramlines a bit, and its ride quality is uneven, but fundamentally it's a well-sorted car. Despite its retro looks, modern concepts like road-holding are still respected - it grips well and goes like hell.
'The Fighter has 52/48 front/rear weight distribution, despite having that enormous V10 up-front'
Its chassis - designed by former Brabham and Aston Martin race engineer Max Boxstrom - is a steel and aluminium box-section, with reinforced roll-hoops in the windscreen surround. The doors and tailgate are carbon fibre, the body panels aluminium. Bristol says the Fighter has 52/48 front/rear weight distribution, despite having that enormous V10 up-front, and makes even noisier claims about its centre of gravity (apparently, even the Blenheim has a better C of G than every current Ferrari except the Enzo).
Even more startling are the torsional rigidity numbers: the Blenheim - Canary Wharf on wheels, only less modern - is apparently stiffer than the McLaren F1, and the Fighter is stiffer than the Blenheim. Go figure...
You might be some time, though. An Audi R8, Porsche Carrera S or Aston Martin Vantage all make more sense and go harder than the Fighter, never mind the Ferrari 599 GTB. By any rational calculation, the Bristol doesn't add up. But you know, bollocks to that. Anyone who can afford to drop 235 grand on one of these can probably have whatever they want - planes, trains and/or automobiles - and the Fighter is seriously exclusive and absolutely stuffed with character.
In many ways, this is a story you couldn't make up. But Bristol has.
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