Bristol Cars

I always had a passion for cars since I was child and especially for sports cars. Usually people think sport cars are fast and look attractive and catch people´s eye with their design but there is a British sports cars brand with a completely different mentality, Bristol Cars.

Bristol Cars was started was started around 60 years and since then have been producing hand made sports cars. They claim to be the last wholly British cars since the owners are British and the production is still made in Bristol near London.
One of the characteristics of this brand is the absence of promotion of their cars, there are no car dealers selling Bristols and they are not involved in racing competitions, the only way to buy a Bristol car is to contact the company directly.
Another characteristic of these cars is the simplicity of the design, rather than copying the aggressive sport design of other brands like Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche they focus their design on engineering perfection and dynamics. The result is that the cars look like a common car but with an exclusive touch.
The customers of Bristol automobiles appreciate this "Britishness", this willingness to be different from other sports cars, the fact that the cars are hand made and mostly the exclusivity of the brand. They are actually proud of not being famous at all like their slogan says: "Nicely understated, never underrated". Only connoisseurs know about Bristol cars and driving them in the streets does not mean having everyone looking at you. This is why the buyers are ready to pay over £200,000 for a car.

The reasons stated above are the reason why I love this brand. They are the proof that you can be different, somewhat eccentric, and yet be successful. The company does not provide information about their production or financial results but the fact that they have been around for more than 60 years is an evident success. This success was achieved in the automobile sector, a mature and very competitive market, and this was done against the conventions of the market. These cars do not look stunning yet they have this charm and difference which make them so special and, in my opinion, the most exclusive cars in the world.

References:

Bristol Cars official web page, information retrieved on the 25-09-08 at: http://www.bristolcars.co.uk/index2.htm

Wikipedia.org, information retrieved on the 25-09-08 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_(automobile)