The Vintage Sports car Club was founded in 1934 because a small group of people objected to mass production which, as far as they were concerned, meant an end to what they loved; Hand built, high performance, luxury cars. The reality was different, the Wall St Crash affected every country, only Germany with its policy of massive public spending had a buoyant economy, the rest sat on their hands. British car manufacturers made what they could sell; small horse power, compact family saloons of which the most popular were the Morris 8, the Austin 7 and the Hillman Minx and they sold in substantial quantities while luxury and sporting car manufactures like Alvis, Lagonda Rolls-Royce and Bentley struggled. Times were hard and they’d have been worse if the Government hadn’t applied a 33.3% tax to imported vehicles to protect our industry.

Shielded from competition and trading in depressed economic conditions, the British Motor Industry produced dull but satisfactory cars. Many European ones were, by comparison, technically very advanced and highly innovative. Lancia had produced the first chassis-less car in 1919 and the Aprilia in the late thirties, Citroen introduced the Light 15 in 1934 and BMW had independent front suspension and rack and pinion steering by 1934. These companies effectively provided a blueprint for the cars that we drive today.

WWII destroyed everything and created enormous demand so that by 1950 Britain had built over 1 million cars, which made us the World’s largest exporter. It was 1955 before, mostly as a result of stupid Government policies, that the Germans overtook us. Red Robbo and his ilk were only limbering up then.

So it was that after the stagnation of the nineteen thirties, the utter devastation of WWII created enormous demand and just as happened in the Vintage era, the early post war years produced a succession of rapidly developing and technically very interesting cars. This produced considerable wealth, our Film Industry thrived (pure fantasy and some of it rather beautiful, no miserabilism, no socialist angst and no Ken Loach) and the fashions were fabulous too. One only has to look at the photographs of Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson in magazines like Vogue, the films of Powell and Pressburger and Gainsborough Pictures, or the stunning beauty of many of the cars of that era to realize that it was an exciting time.

Meanwhile our batty, but well meaning, Government was borrowing money from the Americans at present day credit card rates to fund an Atom Bomb, nationalize the Coal Industry (production dropped by as much as 76% in one Pit!) in readiness for a couple of the worst winters in history, then they used the same well tried principles to provide us with the National Health Service (70% of us had health insurance for 6d week and it rose to 10/- for the new system to cover the rest!) and pull out of India and Palestine leaving problems that survive to this day. Sadly it’s this “social reform” that most of us think of if the Forties are being discussed.

Two early and completely new and very exciting arrivals were the Bentley MKVI and the Bristol 400, the Bentley was the traditional British take on the luxury sporting saloon but completely up to date, while the Bristol 400, the Bristol Aircraft Company’s first attempt at making motorcars was truly remarkable, it was 20mph faster than other 2 Litre of the era and accelerated faster than the MVI Bentley and that’s only part of the story, its appearance was unique but with more than a passing resemblance to the magnificent Teardrop Coupe Paris Coachbuilders, Figoni and Falaschi had produced on a Talbot Lago chassis before the War and its ride and handling was so outstanding that it would shame quite a few cars made today!   There followed a string of competition successes in the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio amongst many others and well into the fifties, their remarkable engine was still winning races, at first in Frazer Nashes and then in a variety of other cars including Cooper, Kieft, AC and Emeryson. It’s sobering to think that the 400 is directly descended from three BMW’s made before WWII!

There were quite few other exciting cars from that era and nearly all are now very sought after and extremely valuable, but for no accountable reason the Bristol 400 has remained a “best kept secret”. What other car that is eligible for all the major historic events can be bought for so little and what other drives a well? Certainly not an XK120 or a Lancia B20. And very few look as good either, presumably Bristol Cars LTD's rather bizarre image and their failure to capitalize on the success of their first model must play a part in this situation. Let’s us hope things change soon. Interestingly TT Workshops are prepared to give anyone the ex Crook and  very first 400 if they can do the restoration, so it will be interesting to see if one of the major collectors takes it on. It’ll be expensive but worth it, they are an astonishingly good driving experience and anyone interested should contact James Harris.