Ever heard of a Bristol? Well its the most powerful prodution car in the world...

Bristol Cars is a manufacturer of hand-built luxury cars, based at Filton, near Bristol, England. Bristol Cars has no distributors nor dealers and deals directly with customers; they have a showroom in Kensington in London. They claim to be the last wholly British-owned luxury car builder. The cars have only ever been made in very small numbers; about 150 per year, although the company has long refused to disclose production numbers and the current production (in 2004) is probably much less than this figure.

Bristol is an oddity because it builds expensive but, in the company's words, "nicely understated" cars. The Bristol values are those of tradition, understated quality, and practicality, rather than ostentation or excitement. Bristols built today are the same in major details as any from the past 30 years or more. Some would call this antiquated, but Bristol believes that no big changes are necessary. The cars are still totally handmade, taking four times the man-hours to complete than other luxury cars.

The cars are designed to be effective daily transportation rather than occasional indulgences. Comfort, driveability and ease of maintenance are paramount. With regular maintenance, the company expects a Bristol to outlast its owner, and Bristol Cars will maintain any car they ever built. The vast majority of parts are in stock, and they will remanufacture or hand-make any other required parts.

With their small production numbers, lack of glamour and no advertising, most even in the UK would not recognise a Bristol. This exclusive obscurity is very appealing to a certain class of buyer.



The car maker developed the Fighter T to satisfy customer demands for more performance. Not that the regular Fighter is a slouch At 3500 rpm the "standard" Fighter produces an impressive 525 lb.ft of torque and cracks 0-60mph in 4.0sec with a top speed that surpasses 200mph.

The T stands for turbocharged. Twin turbos almost double the peak power and whip up 1405 Nm / 1036 ft lbs of torque and a whopping 1012BHP @ 5600 rpm . Yet the power hike has not necessitated wholesale changes to the coupe. 'From the beginning we thought the Fighter would handle 750bhp fairly comfortably,' says Bristol boss Toby Silverton, 'But thanks to electronics [helping to deliver the power smoothly], we've been able to go further.'

The car uses the V10 from the Dodge Viper making this the hottest combination of a British car with an american Engine since the Shelby AC Cobra

The company claims the T could crack 270mph – some 20mph faster than the Bugatti Veyron – but electronics limit top speed to 225mph, It does 0-60mph in 3.5 Seconds

Bristol says it is delivering 20 Fighters a year. The T model will be available from September 2007, priced at £351,913.

Vehicle Specs
Year of introduction: 2007
Weight: 1475 kilo / 3251.8 lbs
Engine: Dodge Viper 90º V 10
Engine Location: Front , longitudinally mounted
Displacement: 7.994 liter / 487.8 cu in
Drivetrain
Valvetrain: 2 valves / cylinder, OHV
Fuel feed: Fuel injection
Aspiration: Twin Turbo
Gearbox: 6 speed Manual
Drive: Rear wheel drive

Performance figures
Power: 1012 bhp / 755 KW @ 5600 rpm
Torque: 1405 Nm / 1036 ft lbs @ 4500 rpm
BHP/Liter: 127 bhp / liter
Power to weight ratio: 0.69 bhp / kg
Top Speed: 362 km/h / 225 mph(limited)
0-60 mph Acceleration: 3.4 s