Bristol - Bristol 402
The Bristol 402 was an open version of the Bristol 401, introduced in 1949. When John Aldington had sent some Bristol chassis to Italy to have bodies made, the job of the open car went to Farina where six cars were built, at least one of them on a 400 chassis, and these were rallied and used to promote the marque early on. But Bristol were busy enough and decided to stick with building just the one type, a closed bodied car, so these stylish Farina designs were never perused further. And although a Bristol 400 drophead was also built, it never went in to production. A small number (approximately 20) of the 4 seater drophead 402's were built to special order at Filton, all with the 85C engine and sold at the same price as the closed car. As an aside, one standard Bristol ended up being made into an open version, but this was after the 402 had been made.
The Bristol 402 started life with was a 5.75x16. We would recommend to fit the equivalent radial tyre size 185R16. Blockley produces a high speed rated steel belted 185VR16 in a correct period looking tyre - see full details of this 185VR15 tyre below:
