1955 Bristol 450S

This car competed in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993, and I photographed it early in the day in a very overcast and rain-soaked paddock.

It's the sole surviving example of the three Bristol 450S cars that were built primarily to contest the Le Mans 24 Hour race, in which they competed with three different body styles in 1953, 1954 and 1955. The cars ran in the under 2 litre class and were powered by the 1,971cc straight-6 Bristol engine derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. The 1953 car had a coupé body with an unusual looking nose which had two headlamps, two spotlights, and a series of air intakes including a strange series of slats in the bodywork where the grille of the car would normally be. The rear of the car was swept back with a fin on either side of the rear window. Two cars were entered for the 1953 Le Mans race but both retired before the race was half way through. For the 1954 race the body was altered, retaining the rear end of the 1953 car, but having the new nose as seen on the 1955 car in the above photograph. Three cars were entered at Le Mans and they finished seventh, eighth and ninth in the overall positions, and first, second and third in the 2 litre class. In 1955 the cars were given the open body as seen above, and again finished seventh, eighth and ninth overall, and in the first three places in the 2 litre class. After that race Bristol withdrew from racing, in part because of the terrible accident there, and the best parts of the three cars were used to build one car, the rest being scrapped. The owner of Bristol Cars, Tony Crook, kept the car until 1992 when he sold it to Simon Draper who entered it for this race at Silverstone, where it was driven by Stephen Archer. It has been taken along to several historic race meetings to sit alongside the cars of other members of the Bristol Owners' Club, but as far as I'm aware this meeting at Silverstone in 1993 is the only competitive outing it has had since that 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour race.