BRISTOL RENNAISSANCE

Emerging from history books and old photographs, Bristol's lost 450 Le Mans has been painstakingly recreated and returned to the Montlhéry banking

- SERGE CORDEY/CHRISTOPHE GAILLARD

Old photographs give the impression of a clumsy, imposing machine, with lines that suggest massive bodywork to the rear. But the reality soon sweeps away all misconceptions: the Bristol 450 Le Mans is compact. It might look unnecessarily long in profile, but the bold aerodynamic logic of its designers actually gives it quite delicate proportions, such as its tapered fins, as slender as those of a fighter jet.

It was this functional aesthetic that inspired Olivier Boré, a Frenchman passionate about art, design and old cars, to embark on a recreation of the forgotten coupé. "Initially, I was looking for an aerodynamic car," Boré explains. "I like things that are designed, and rare, and I've always been fascinated by this kind of streamliner, like the Bugatti Atlantic. But the cars that appealed to me were either impossible to find or too costly."

At the time he owned a Bristol 404, an elegant coupé whose rear wings had small fins, vestiges of the 450's, and it was through enthusiastic research that Boré discovered the 450 Le Mans. Of the four made, only one survives: chassis 11, which had been converted to a roadster in preparation for the 1955 season that ended early (C&SC, January 2019). The idea of recreating a coupé slowly germinated in Boré's mind, and while in England to visit Andrew Mitchell, boss of Wiltshire-based Bristol and coachwork specialist Mitchell Motors, discussion on the 450 turned into a plan of action. "Andrew was immediately very enthusiastic," Boré recalls. "As the original had disappeared, the approach was justified: it was not a replica of an existing car."