What a strange place Togo is to put out a stamp remembering the Bristol automobile. On the other hand, it seems a car worthy to remember. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The aesthetics of todays stamp are great and the Bristol story is worth remembering and retelling. They only built 700 Bristol 400 and Togo was not a British colony where the governor may have had a fondly remembered locally example. Maybe a British ambassador or merchant? No this is a topical stamp and the topic is the Bristol 400 automobile, so that is what we will talk about.
Todays stamp is issue A265, a 1 Franc stamp issued by independent Togo on November 15th 1984. It was part of an 8 stamp issue of classic cars in various denominations, the top three airmail. There are also 2 souvenir sheets. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint of cancelled to order.
Bristol was an airplane company under Baronet George White. During World War II, the company made thousands of Blenheim and Brigand light bombers and Beaufighter night fighters. White had amassed a highly skilled workforce and worried how to keep it together post war. His firm designed a giant airliner called the Brabazon but he also had the idea of a high end sporting car that would be built to a much higher standard than rivals. The Brabazon airliner failed, it was supposed to be able to fly non stop between London and New York and to accomplish that no fewer than 8 engines were teamed behind 4 propellers. In testing this caused the propellers to crack under the strain and the project was cancelled.
On cars, White had the idea of basing his car on an existing prewar Axis design, he had admired prewar Lancias and BMWs. BMW lost one of its big factories in the eastern sector and the plant in Munich was also heavily damaged. The East Germans managed to get the eastern sector plant operating and prewar models were marketed under the name EMW. The B on the engine block was filed down to make an E.
White and his team traveled to Munich and met with BMW engineers. The engineers were paid for their time and the British remember them being excited about their cars continuing in England. The blueprints and a prewar race car were shipped to England and Bristol made their first copy in 1947. The had made improvements to the rear suspension but deleted the BMW’s fuel injection as they felt it beyond them. The Bristol cars were hand made and sold as lifetime cars from only one dealer in London.
The car was slowly developed but as with many European cars it was found that the small engine was unable to supply enough power to the increasingly heavy car. Bristol’s one salesman, Tony Crook also had a Chrysler owned Rootes franchise and when their executives saw his Bristol they were happy to allow him to use their V8s. This big change transformed performance but made the car more of a touring car. Chrysler assigned an engineer to work directly with Bristol even though they ordered fewer engines a year than a medium sized dealer service department. In 1968, George White had a bad crash in his Bristol that left him brain damaged. Tony Crook was able to keep the business going on a shoe string. The factory would take on refurbishments of older cars and prewar BMWs between new car hand construction. The cars sold in such small volume that many wealthy buyers chose it because nobody knew what it was. So the Bristol was the ultimate in understated luxury. As a nod to the companies history, in the 80s and beyond, model numbers were dispensed with and the company used the old airplane names.
Unfortunately the firm was not able to function after Tony Crook’s retirement in 2006. They went into receivership in 2011 and the assets passed to a Russian Oligarch based in London. He has plans for new models no longer based on the old BMW frame but in the meantime the factory and one dealer concentrate on reselling and refurbishment of the old cars.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast George White and Tony Crook for finding a way to keep a workforce together for so long after the war. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.