Stylish in Bristol fashion

At yesterday's exchange rate, £195,000 was worth $512,000. A couple of years ago £195,000 roughly panned out at $700,000. That was when the New Zealand dollar was worth about 28 British pence. Now it's worth around 38 pence.

The stronger dollar has saved New Zealanders with an eye on one of the most exclusive of British sports cars about $188,000, give or take a few dollars.

The Bristol Fighter has gone on sale in Britain for £195,000, plus 17.5 per cent value added tax of £34,125. All up, that's £229,125 - or just over $600,000.

The Fighter is more expensive than premium Porsches and Ferraris. Why? Mostly because Bristol is a hand-built, low-volume carmaker and has been since its first car, the 400, in 1946. Another reason is that it will make only 20 Fighters a year.

First, a brief history of Bristol Cars Ltd. It began business in 1946, as a division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, founded in 1910 by British industrialist Sir George White (1854-1916).

White had made his name in turn-of-the-century public transport - trains, trams, buses and taxis - and saw aircraft as a means of mass transport and the development of air power as a force for peace.

By 1913, the BAC plant in Filton, South Gloucestershire, was the largest aircraft factory in the world. White had helped to set up Britain's first three airports and his aviation schools trained most of the British pilots to serve at the start of World War I, in 1914.

White's first plane was the 1910 Boxkite. None survive, although two replicas were made, one used in the film Those Magnificent Men and their Flying Machines.

The earliest surviving Bristol is the frame of the Coanda monoplane of 1912, now in a museum in Italy.

The most complete early survivors are the 1915 BE2c and the 1916 M1 monoplane, nicknamed the "Red Devil" during World War I. Both planes are in museums - the BE2c in Canada and the M1 in South Australia.

The M1 was succeeded in 1916 by the F2B Fighter, described as the finest two-seater plane of World War I. White died later that year, before the F2B earned its reputation.

Family members ran the company thereafter, building such notable Bristol aircraft as the Bulldog, Blenheim, Beaufort, Beaufighter and Britannia.

BAC set up the car division in 1946 and ran the aeroplane operation until 1960, when it joined with others to form the British Aircraft Corporation (later British Aerospace).

Bristol Cars Ltd then passed into private hands. It remains an exclusive operation: "Today, our staff is still drawn from an aviation background to ensure that they are steeped in the traditions of superior engineering, unimpeachable quality and a total devotion to safety," it says loftily. "We have no interest in slavishly copying automotive fashion. We crave instead integrity of purpose and an unmatched level of engineering perfection.

"We pursue a mindset that designs and builds our cars with a useful life of many decades in mind. As a result, we continue to enjoy absolute customer confidence and loyalty, which allows Bristol to thrive where others have failed.

"We are the only luxury car manufacturer that remains in private British hands. This ensures us the absolute independence of thought and action that is essential to our purpose."

The company says the two-door Fighter has been designed from scratch to meet the requirements of a sports car capable of 340km/h, or 210mph. The first sketch was done in 1999.

"Aerodynamic efficiency has been placed ahead of all other considerations. Design features are shared with aircraft, high-speed missiles and even submarines."

The Fighter is a mix of steel, aluminium and carbon fibre. The steel chassis has steel sill boxes and cross members, honeycomb aluminium floors and aluminium bulkheads.

The body panels are aluminium and the gullwing doors carbon fibre. The integrated rollover safety cage is made of steel. The car weighs 1475kg (3310lb), split 48 per cent front, 52 rear.

The Fighter is powered by an 8-litre V10 engine developing 390kW (525bhp) and 714Nm of torque at 4200rpm. More than 470Nm is available at engine idle.

A six-speed close-ratio gearbox driving the rear wheels helps the Fighter to sprint from zero to 100km/h in about 4 seconds. Bristol says the V10 engine is doing 2450rpm at 160km/h in sixth gear.

Buyers have the choice of two fuel tanks - the standard 105-litre or optional 130-litre. Also on the options list are four-point racing-type seatbelts. A full-sized spare tyre is standard.

Bristol says the interior is modern and efficient in layout, stylish and elegant in appearance. The deeply bolstered seats are hand-stitched leather and the thick floor carpeting is also trimmed in leather.

Aircraft-style instrumentation includes oil temperature and pressure, fuel system pressure, outside air temperature and engine hours displays.

The aviation theme is also used in an overhead console housing gauges and switchgear.

The Fighter rides on a double-wishbone suspension with 18-inch tyres front and rear. Anti-lock brakes use six-piston callipers up front and four-piston callipers at the rear.

Bristol says the power-assisted rack and pinion steering has 2.7 turns lock to lock and has been optimised for accuracy and feedback.