Arnolt-Bristol 1954

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The Arnolt-Bristol was developed when Stanley H. "Wacky" Arnolt, who imported european sports cars, turned to Bristol when he searched for a chassis to replace his MG TD based Arnolt Continental
Sportster. He chose the Bristol 404's chassis, which dated back to the pre-war BMW 327. He combined it with the most powerful version of Bristol's 2.0L inline 6 called the 100C which was based on the legendary BMW 328 engine and produced 130bhp. The running gear and brakes were taken from the Bristol 403, in order to make the car as affordable as possible. The body was styled by Bertone's Franco Scaglione, who was also responsible for the super-aerodynamic B.A.T. Concept cars and the Lamborghini 350GTV. The Body was made from steel rather than aluminium again to keep costs down. The finished car was up to 25% cheaper than the Bristol 404 and was generally praised for it's handling and performance by many Car magazines such as Sports Cars Illustrated which described it as "probably the best handling car that we have ever tested" in 1956. It was available in 4 variations:
-The very basic Competition
-The Bolide, which was nearly idetical to the Competition except that it got a basic hood
-The better equipped De Luxe
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And a Coupé which was introduced in 1955
It's performance is still respectable: 0-60 in 8.7sec, 0-100 in 27.9sec and a top speed of 112mph for the Competition model.

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And a De Luxe:
Arnolt_Bristol_deluxe_vr.jpg


800px-Arnolt_Bristol_%27Bolide%27_engine%2C_1954.JPG
 
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