1954 · The gentleman’s express
Bristol 405
The only four-door Bristol.
The 405 carried the 404’s ideas onto the full-length chassis and became the only four-door motor car Bristol ever produced, a family car for fast, long journeys.
Shown in 1954 and listed from October 1955, the 405 used the 404’s style of construction on the longer frame, with an overdrive on top gear that behaved as a fifth. It was bought as a working car as much as a business saloon: owners drove them across continents, and one French owner covered forty thousand kilometres in two years.
A drophead version was bodied by Abbott of Farnham on an ash frame. Lessons from the open car stiffened the screen pillars of every later saloon. The last 405 was built in February 1958, as the 406 arrived.
Bristol Cars Approved
