The Bristol Fighter T, as announced in 2006

The Fighter T first appeared on Bristol's website towards the end of 2006, under the heading "New Fighter T to be added to Fighter and Fighter S range". Independent coverage in Classic Driver on 9 November 2006 confirms the announcement was public by that month.

Bristol's explanation for the car was disarming. In the short time the Fighter had been on sale, the company wrote, owners had tended to use it as everyday transport and also for track days, and "in spite of the Fighter and Fighter S's very high performance, to our surprise we have sometimes been asked for more". The Fighter T was the answer, and Bristol was at pains to say it would remain "a compact and enjoyable car to drive around town" that took "two people and their luggage in great luxury and ease for trans continental travel".

The announcement leaned on the company's history, claiming "over a quarter of a century of turbocharging experience" and dating it to the Beaufighter of January 1980.

The Fighter T kept the Fighter's all-aluminium 8-litre V10 but added two ball-bearing, water-cooled turbochargers with intercooling, uprated engine internals, high-flow cylinder heads with a high-lift camshaft, a larger cooling system and catalysts, and a free-flow exhaust exiting at the sides of the car. Bristol quoted a compression ratio of 9.3:1 and an output of 127 bhp per litre.

The rest of the car was revised to suit. The structure was said to be 30 per cent stiffer in torsion. Springs were firmer and ride height 10 mm lower; the front anti-roll bar was 25 per cent stiffer; dampers were firmer "sports" units; wishbone geometry was revised front and rear with 40 per cent more castor; the rear torque bushes were ball-jointed. Wheels grew to 19-inch five-spoke lightweight alloys carrying 285-section front and 335-section rear tyres. The six-speed manual gearbox was given increased torque capacity and revised ratios, keeping 60 mph in first gear and giving 49.8 mph per 1,000 rpm in sixth.

Outside, the T was to be identified by a radiused intake grille, side-exit exhausts with polished stainless outlets and a rear wake diffuser; the 2010 description added a front splitter. Inside, Bristol proposed an engine-turned aluminium instrument and centre console, aluminium switchgear, a turbo boost gauge, lightweight "racing style" seats and a lightweight steering wheel.

Bristol's announcement quoted 1,012 bhp at 5,600 rpm and 1,036 lb ft of torque at 4,500 rpm. It added that where the standard Fighter produced 525 lb ft at 3,500 rpm, the T delivered more than 900 lb ft at the same engine speed and held that figure to the 6,000 rpm limit. Kerb weight was given as 1,595 kg with 52 per cent on the rear wheels. Bristol quoted 0 to 60 mph in less than 3.5 seconds and wrote that "a potential maximum speed of more than 270 mph has been electronically limited to a more than sufficient 225 mph at 4500 rpm". The retail price was £351,931 including VAT.

These are the factory's contemporary claims. No independent test of a Fighter T is known to Bristol Cars Group, and the figures should be read as the specification Bristol intended to build to.

Bristol's Fighter T page was revised twice, and the changes are small but telling.

The drag factor, which Bristol attributed to the new rear wake diffuser, was quoted as 0.27 in the December 2006 version, 0.25 in the December 2008 version and 0.225 on the combined Fighter and Fighter T page from November 2010. Progressive aerodynamic development is a plausible explanation; Bristol did not give one.

The 2006 page said "First deliveries of Fighter T expected September 2007". The 2008 version of the page no longer carried that sentence, and the 2010 page did not give a delivery date at all. The 2010 page also lengthened the turbocharging boast from "over a quarter of a century" to "more than 30 years" and moved the car from its own page into a section beneath the Fighter, where it stayed, essentially unchanged, until the website's last captures in 2020.

Bristol's archive establishes that the Fighter T was announced, priced and specified in detail, that the company expected deliveries from September 2007, and that it continued to list the car as an available option for the rest of its manufacturing life and beyond. It does not contain a delivery record, a customer car, a road test or a photograph identified as a completed Fighter T. The absence of that evidence in one company's website archive is not proof that no car was built, and this page does not make that claim. Bristol's surviving factory records are expected to settle the question, and this page will be updated when they have been examined.

What can be said with confidence is that the Fighter T's twin-turbocharged specification remained an unfinished chapter of the original programme. Among the five chassis of the final Fighter series being completed today, one is to be built as a Fighter T; how that car is being specified and offered is set out on the Fighter page.