Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Bristol 450, Bristol 412, Bristol Type 603, Bristol Fighter, Bristol 401, Bristol 404 and 405, Bristol 411, Bristol 407, Bristol 400, Bristol 406, Bristol 409, Bristol 403, Bristol 408, Bristol 410. Excerpt: The Bristol 400 luxury car is the first automotive product of the British Bristol Aeroplane Company. After World War II, BAC decided to diversify and formed a car division, which would later be the Bristol Cars company in its own right. BAC subsequently acquired a licence from Frazer Nash to build BMW models. Bristol chose to base its first model on the best features of two outstanding pre-war BMWs, namely the 328's engine, and the 326's frame. These were covered with a neat all-steel body inspired on BMW 327's. The Bristol 400 featured a slightly modified version of BMW's six-cylinder pushrod engine of 1,971 cc (bore 66mm, stroke 96mm). This engine, considered advanced for its time due to its hemispherical combustion chambers and very short inlet and exhaust ports, developed 80 horsepower at 4,500 revs per minutes and could carry the 400 to a top speed of around 148km/h (92 mph) with acceleration to match. In order to maintain a hemispherical combustion chamber, the valves had to be positioned at an angle to the head. In order to drive both sets of valves from a single camshaft, the Bristol engine used a system of rods, followers and bell-cranks to drive the valves on the far side of the engine from the camshaft. Owners soon found that setting and maintaining the numerous clearances in the system was difficult but vital to keep the engine in tune. The gearbox was a four-speed manual with synchromesh on the upper three ratios and a freewheel on first. The model 400 was the only Bristol to be fitted with a steel skin, and had all flat glass, but for the curved
| | Bristol Vehicles: Bristol 450, Bristol 412, Bristol Type 603, Bristol Fighter, Bristol 401, Bristol 404 and 405, Bristol 411, Bristol 407 |  | 10.55 |  |