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Bristol Bullet


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HOLA441
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HOLA442

To be honest I'd have a Spyker over that if I was in the market for an aviation inspired supercar. But I think it would look a lot better with some smaller wheels and higher profile tyres, a la AC Cobra.

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HOLA443

The Ariel factory's in north Somerset near Bristol. I had a couple of Atoms blast by me on the M5 last year (the only time I've seen one and I saw two) in that locale; so they were either testing or delivering. Mad but fun cars.

I'm going to be incredibly perdantic, but they're made just outside of Crewkerne. The firm is run by a chap, and his two sons. I met one of his sons about a month ago. He was on about how much a nice guy Matt Le Blanc is (TG recently tested the Nomad), and how adaptable the Ace is...

ariel-ace-03_600x0w.jpg

Apparently it can be made automatic if necessary, and the throttle can be made left or right-handed. He was on about a chap who had muscle weakness down one side, so they made a bike so that he could control the bike with his other hand.

They're going to have to move to a bigger factory in the next couple of years, as they're going to run out of room...

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HOLA444

I'm going to be incredibly perdantic, but they're made just outside of Crewkerne. The firm is run by a chap, and his two sons. I met one of his sons about a month ago. He was on about how much a nice guy Matt Le Blanc is (TG recently tested the Nomad), and how adaptable the Ace is...

Apparently it can be made automatic if necessary, and the throttle can be made left or right-handed. He was on about a chap who had muscle weakness down one side, so they made a bike so that he could control the bike with his other hand.

They're going to have to move to a bigger factory in the next couple of years, as they're going to run out of room...

To continue the pedantry then ( :P )- the engine (and I assume the swingarm / shaft drive arrangement) is from a Honda VFR1200, and Honda sell a version of that with a DCT gearbox. As for swapping the controls around on bikes, it's all pretty easy. Left hand thumb control of the rear brake has been popular amongst racers since Mick Doohan smashed his leg up in 1992 (and then cleaned up on his comeback using it to modulate wheelspin). AFAIK Iain Hutchinson still uses a thumb brake and right hand gear shift on his bikes since he knackered his left leg in 2010- and won 3 TTs this year. Albeit that you can't just swap a standard twistgrip from the right bar to the left unless you're happy for it to operate the other way round, I daresay there are enough one armed bikers around that you can buy them off the shelf.

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HOLA445

To continue the pedantry then ( :P )- the engine (and I assume the swingarm / shaft drive arrangement) is from a Honda VFR1200, and Honda sell a version of that with a DCT gearbox. As for swapping the controls around on bikes, it's all pretty easy. Left hand thumb control of the rear brake has been popular amongst racers since Mick Doohan smashed his leg up in 1992 (and then cleaned up on his comeback using it to modulate wheelspin). AFAIK Iain Hutchinson still uses a thumb brake and right hand gear shift on his bikes since he knackered his left leg in 2010- and won 3 TTs this year. Albeit that you can't just swap a standard twistgrip from the right bar to the left unless you're happy for it to operate the other way round, I daresay there are enough one armed bikers around that you can buy them off the shelf.

Each bike is custom made for the rider - made to measure if you will...I doubt you'll get that down the local Suzuki dealer :)

I'd love an Atom, but they hold their money. Unfortunately I doubt I'll see one go for £1500 down at the Westbury Car auction.

http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/ace/overview/

Looking at the blurb, it has a:

76 degree 1237cc Unicam Honda V4

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HOLA447

The headlights look a bit small to me.

Bigger than their last effort.

This one seems like a good effort to take design elements from the 407ish cars into something that looks sort of modern.

I really want to like Bristol cars - they are all sort of pretty, etc. But in the end they are all not good enough. I imagine they are nice to sit in, though.

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HOLA448

Each bike is custom made for the rider - made to measure if you will...I doubt you'll get that down the local Suzuki dealer :)

You would if you walked into somewhere like Crescent with the 20 grand starting price of an Ace in your pocket!

It's a lovely bike, and I'm glad it exists; and by extension, I guess, I'm glad that there are people who want to and can afford to pay out for a bespoke bit of British craftmanship, be it a £25k Ace or a £250k Bristol (in which context the Ace starts to look much more reasonable, being the same price as something like a BMW 320D). It's just that neither are my cup of tea, I guess.

Personally if I'm ever in the market for a handbuilt British car it'll be an Ultima . I think the top of the line 1000bhp one costs about £100k factory built. Like Bristols of old it uses a US pushrod V8 rather than a s*****y German motor, and I daresay the fibreglass bodywork isn't as lovely as the hand worked ally on the Bristol, but it's a bit quicker...

Edit: cheers swear filter for making things look worse, I actually wrote s w a n k y

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HOLA4411

You would if you walked into somewhere like Crescent with the 20 grand starting price of an Ace in your pocket!

It's a lovely bike, and I'm glad it exists; and by extension, I guess, I'm glad that there are people who want to and can afford to pay out for a bespoke bit of British craftmanship, be it a £25k Ace or a £250k Bristol (in which context the Ace starts to look much more reasonable, being the same price as something like a BMW 320D). It's just that neither are my cup of tea, I guess.

Personally if I'm ever in the market for a handbuilt British car it'll be an Ultima . I think the top of the line 1000bhp one costs about £100k factory built. Like Bristols of old it uses a US pushrod V8 rather than a s*****y German motor, and I daresay the fibreglass bodywork isn't as lovely as the hand worked ally on the Bristol, but it's a bit quicker...

Edit: cheers swear filter for making things look worse, I actually wrote s w a n k y

Yes, if I had the space and the money I'd have an Ultima along with the ISF.

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HOLA4412

Yes, if I had the space and the money I'd have an Ultima along with the ISF.

I keep thinking of those.

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HOLA4413

I keep thinking of those.

I have it a yaers now and when I look at other serious cars I realise that something would have to be very good indeed to offer any worthwhile improvement over the ISF. It's a late one with a proper dif so yoy have a really good combination of performance, road behavior and comfort. It really does them all really well.

of course if Lexus were to to a lightweight manual gearbox version of the RCF, lets call it an RCF RS....

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HOLA4414

I don't like its face.

Don't like a few things about it, the proportions are wrong. I guess modern safety considerations might be slighty responsible for this buggeration of a sports car. Clearly the lights could be a big bigger to give it a nicer face, the grill a bit more retro. The sides are high sided without any curves...may be this is for safety reasons.

Ferrari 250 (1962) and how to get the perfect shape...

http://f.images.boldride.com/ferrari/1962/ferrari-250-gt-swb-california-1316711642-20918.jpg

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HOLA4415

I have it a yaers now and when I look at other serious cars I realise that something would have to be very good indeed to offer any worthwhile improvement over the ISF. It's a late one with a proper dif so yoy have a really good combination of performance, road behavior and comfort. It really does them all really well.

of course if Lexus were to to a lightweight manual gearbox version of the RCF, lets call it an RCF RS....

I quite like a Lexus. I have had two. I might be tempted by a third one.

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HOLA4416

Don't like a few things about it, the proportions are wrong. I guess modern safety considerations might be slighty responsible for this buggeration of a sports car. Clearly the lights could be a big bigger to give it a nicer face, the grill a bit more retro. The sides are high sided without any curves...may be this is for safety reasons.

If you look at a Bristol 407 and imagine it with the roof cut off and a high aeroscreen you can see where they're coming from. Most of your 'proportions are wrong' are just the Bristol look. Which I guess is why, although I want to like them, I don't think I'd actually want a (classic) Bristol.

As to lovely hand-made in Britain - there are quite a few 'hand made in Britain' cars that I'd get before a Bullet.

(and I've already got 4 hand-made in Britain cars, so I've done my bit).

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