The Bristol 412 and Beaufighter

Tony Crook conceived the 412 with Gianni Zagato. The two had no common language, and their interpreter, Vincent Piatti, sometimes altered the script; the car that came off the drawing board was two feet longer than Crook had wanted. It was announced in May 1975 alongside the 411 Series 5, both with the 6,556 cc Chrysler V8. Dudley Hobbs said it looked like two shoe boxes on top of each other.

The targa structure removed the fragility of a fully open car, and Crook devised a door handle that drew the frameless glass down slightly before the door opened; to save the cost, he never patented it. The construction had one weakness: rust attacked the panel between the hoops and the panel that took the rear of the removable roof, because the Zagato design lacked long-term protection against British weather. The V8 ran well on LPG, with lower emissions.

The 412 Series 2 took the 360 cu in engine and framed door windows that closed against a bar, with the roof panel resting on top of it. Front headrests were added, and a multi-coloured grille badge replaced the Pegasus. Crook had one segment of the badge changed to yellow: he was superstitious that the original green stood for grass, whereas yellow could be corn or sand.

In 1980 Bristol tried America. After an American met at Earls Court promised to steer the company through the regulations, left-hand-drive 412s were assembled in a separate area at Filton, and the brochure was headed "from Concorde Country". The project failed on cost and bureaucracy, and Bristol refused the terms that Rolls-Royce and Bentley agents asked. About a dozen cars intended for left-hand drive were finished with right-hand drive and one left-hand-drive car went to Switzerland. A Canadian car, with an EPA Certificate of Conformity dated 26 June 1980, was shipped from Southampton on 12 November 1980; the retired service chief Eric Storey checked it over and wrote to its buyer himself.

The Beaufighter's turbocharger was a Rotomaster unit, drawing on Chrysler's experience of turbocharging its V8. The engine sat lower in the chassis under a bonnet bulge, with a 440-specification torque converter and a stronger propshaft; Bristol kept centrifugal and vacuum ignition advance rather than electronic, and a simpler silencer made the car lighter overall. It had twin headlamps, electric front seats, a larger side window, a fixed front roof with an opening panel and 225/70 tyres, and the Recaro backrest wheel became standard.

Crook tested it at night on a deserted M4 and on the Filton runway, and one tester said that at full throttle it sounded "like a Spitfire in a dive". First deliveries were made in 1980, and the car stayed in production for about twelve years. Bristol's building-block method, sharing chassis, mechanical parts, dashboards and seats across its late 1970s models, allowed new variants without costly restyling: the Beaufighter's turbocharged engine went on to power the Brigand of the 603 line. A shorter, lighter successor was planned, but it died with the designer Dennis Sevier in 1989.

At Crook's instigation Bristol also built the Beaufort, a fully opening drophead derived from the 412 with a powered folding roof. The rams of its electric motors made it an occasional four-seater. It was sold to an Egyptian banker, and despite persistent rumours of more, only one was built.

Figures as recorded in period and historical sources, reproduced as quoted rather than as tested figures.