A once in a lifetime chance

Car enthusiasts are getting a once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy a unique one-off four-year-old British sports car, and it could cost them hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The Bristol Bullet roadster is among items being disposed of by joint liquidators of Bristol Cars, which folded earlier this year.

Jeremy Frost and Patrick Wadsted of Frost Group Ltd appointed as Joint Liquidators, have been on an extensive hunt for the car maker’s assets and this discovered secret storage facility with a large quantity of designs, manuals, parts and tooling covering the many years of the businesses’ existence. Included as well were a collection of rare and vintage cars, in various stages of completeness including the first “Bristol Bullet” car.

This collection is expected to command a high price at auction when it goes up on https://bidspotter.co.uk, with some of the lots including the “Bristol Bullet” being described as so unique as to make estimating the price likely to be realized impossible to determine.

That is not to say the Liquidators expectations have anything other than increased by this finding.

Hertfordshire based machinery and business asset valuers and experts in selling this type of material, Wyles Hardy & Co, have been instrumental in dealing with the valuation and forthcoming sale of the collection.

With the valuation now appraised the final task of assigning lots is being completed in preparation for their sale by a combination of private treaty and auction, to the highest bidder.

All funds raised from the sale will be utilized by the Joint Liquidators to both complete their investigations into the Companies affairs with the expectation that creditors including Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs should receive a decent return.

Jeremy Frost, Managing Director of Frost Group Ltd, said, “There has been a large swell of interest regarding these assets from various parts of the world, whether they be private collectors, businesses looking to secure parts for onward sale; we have even had interest from businesses looking to start making new models under the Bristol Cars name. We anticipate the sale will generate a lot of attention.”

He added, “This has been an extremely interesting case and a huge amount of work has been done behind the scenes to get us into the position we are in now – We are grateful, with the curveball thrown to us of Covid-19, for the goodwill shown to us by a number of parties and the professionalism and flexibility of both members of our team and our agents. We hope to continue with the good news element of this situation arising out of the chaos and litigation we inherited. ”

The auction is currently set to go live on 19 August and ends on 2 September.

Bristol Cars was formed in 1945 as an offshoot of the Bristol Aeroplane Company with a sole showroom in London close to Olympia Hall.

A low volume car maker for enthusiasts, just 22 staff were employed and recorded on its books at Filton, Bristol when it suspended production in March 2011.

It was bought out of administration the following month by Kamkorp, who also manage Frazer Nash Research, and concentrated on restoring and maintaining its cars before the new owner indicated it wished to make a new model.

Its Project Pinnacle roadster, which became the Bullet in 2016, was meant mark 70 years of production, but only one was made and shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that year and the new business was liquidated in May 2020, when the Frost Group was appointed Joint Liquidators.

Ironically it was a tie up with Frazer Nash which led to the creation of the Bristol Car Company after WW2.