Long before the current crop of four-door, long-wheelbase coupés now offered by major plush manufacturers worked their way onto the car scene, the Bristol 405 had it pegged. Effectively a grown-up version of the Bristol 404, the 405 provided innovative thinking back when Anthony Eden was Prime Minister and the world was still in black and white.
British Beef For Sunday Lunch – The Bristol 405
It’s 1953 - the aftermath of the Second World War still forces ration books on the nation as Britain struggles to find its feet. The world is changing, but not fast enough for the petrol heads of the UK - the Jaguar E-Type is still nearly a decade away and the Mini is yet to mobilise the masses. However, it was during 1953 that Bristol unveiled its 405 to the world - and it was rather special. This was a four-door coupé with style like no other car of the time.
Offering a top speed of 110mph from its 105bhp engine, and a 0-60 sprint in 12 seconds, for the standards of the day, the 405 was a mile ahead of any other four-door vehicle. Originally a result of the search for more space without ‘spoiling the concept’, the 405 went on to outsell its predecessor and stamp itself as a significant commercial success.
The 405 was actually available in two forms - the more common four-door saloon and a much rarer 405 drophead coupé. The saloon version was built on the standard Bristol chassis while the coupé, of which only 43 were built, had a body by Abbotts of Farnham with highly tuned 2-litre six-cylinder engines working with advanced valve timing.
The Bristol worked with an improved gearbox set up using a redesigned gear lever, allowing a slick and improved gear change, with an overdrive and front disc brakes as options on later models. It was also the first car manufactured by Bristol to have an opening bootlid, allowing practicality the likes of which Bristol owners had never seen before.
A number of the later examples housed a 2.2 litre engine later used in the forthcoming 406, providing power and speed to match the swept-back looks. They were tough old numbers too, with the survival rates for older Bristols rather low, the 405s updated design (with most of the wood in the body above the waistline) allowed more examples to survive. There are still a number of them about.