An Interview with Tony Crook, former owner of Bristol Cars

Tony thank you so much for coming thank you for having me great to great to have you here and great to see you in your old school when did you when did you come to Clifton when was active in college yes between 1934 1938 72 years eight months before the war yes and what subjects were you doing what were you what were you good at what were you interested in yeah motor cars yeah right it was the house my I never got had and the upper fifth yes I was found with my work in my hand with a copy of motor sport behind in the house master said you'll end up in the garage and I really ended up making garages and Bristol went up owning a few garages so he was a prescient man what was motoring in your blood was there a background and your family no we were coloring illness yes and the age of six I was taken to watch motor racing in Southport Sam's when my father died yes and then they got hooked but then they had to wait 20 years before I started racing they're going to school game to Clifton that became so sand racing got you started indeed indeed back in could be 626 so when did you first get involved with Bristol cars how did that come about when I was in the Air Force and where we were in Lincolnshire some of the technical representatives of rolls-royce and Bristol came up to look at the engines of our aircraft yes they said don't you know that Bristol are going to make a car anyway I had a three to eight BMW yes at a time so strangely enough after all I'm having some of that and but before it actually came out I joined up with Raymond mace yes racing driver and I was there for you anyway then I drove into Clifton war rest up in my uniform went for the main gate nobody asked me what it was to see therefore session yes and I walked in and there I saw major Abel major Abel table and then I saw dogs wait yes and I told them what I've been doing with my attention during the war you saw made at your table and Sir George white said I'd like to thank you be involved in it yes and they said well it's based on ashes now and of course they had looks from three to eight other BMWs during the war based on that but you'd had a you'd have an interest in motorsport [Music] in in the what was the feature I'd like to drive compared to its rivals in those days this is very advanced car remember the car was sitting in here sugar they got involved with one of these [Music] so finally class and dispensing with nothing so we really took the trash really for the situation [Music] so that brings a hold the start of Bristol cars how did that how did that take off in the early days well very well richly of course it was fresh air pen yes and rusty cars and took off very well we had the first demonstration car yes wish I'd had from there and that was the first big burst it wasn't the first car there was one in each expect one month I which was written off and then laid two four five at 1845 and that we drove that the East Parelli Russia first rally and the only Radley I went into her there's never much room to them and at that at that time if I get this right to you you were building out Tony crook motors and Anthony chromatic promoters which actually form during the war yes the cost during the war I met a big man who ran a tuning establishment and kept cool Robert Arbuthnot and I even thought of going into business with him yes what I did was lent him a load of money and they came back on leave from therefore I would seize any card he had in stock yes take it away and sell it or drive it and bring it back and like that I had started up in the lockups in Lincolnshire near my Air Force Station and I for mantel male to say but then it was incorporated the company at the end of 1946 where you started to get involved in motor racing again in early 46 what he said indeed the very first thing they had sprints in those days yes no courses broken and in the 3-2 age first thing I went into was Prescott a hillclimb yes and they did very well in that then there was shells hit yes and then they had a motor race itself in June 1946 at an old bomber station Ramsden launched there's a lot of post-war motorsport started up on old RAF stations so we won that amazingly enough yes when I was still with Raymond Mays and then it went on and on and on and then all some British courses started yes so meanwhile Bristol Bristol cars was establishing itself stablish himself through the early 50s the the 400 401 came was that a big eye-opener for house streamlining and the which we're sitting him I remember when it was finished they took it up the airfield at filter and I thought oh what a wide car and it took a little bit of getting used to because here we've got three then this just seemed me more like the BMW yes but once they got used to that lovely and as you know we took it how many that was 1950 yes 1950 and you you gotta fly and fly we did go down to live map field yes in Bristol 401 good it in Ephrata took it out the other end another two K and drove it down to Paris went around the milk show drove it to mom dairy yes had a couple of practice runs then we did a hundred and four in the are the only difference washing that before hundred will do about ninety eight ninety now we had back axle ratio so the streamlining made that much difference and and of course the same mentioned everything then we drove it back and we arrived back in England in under 12 hours yes it came off very well so a long a long and successful day home in time for tea what other motorsport were you involved in and living in the 50s in all the race yes I drove in Formula Libra having a 2.9 twin supercharged self Romare yes which ran was a Grand Prix car yes other car when I drove the streets away and then various cars we win and recruit versus we tune peoples come back so occasionally I race those maserati's Shan Shan yeah but the name came really with Fraser Nash so time went past then yes time went past and then we decided to make little two-seater cars remember it we only made 50 of those the for a four that was the 404 and that car was successful but the government of the day said you can only have a certain amount of Steel yes they said oh you can make little car like that you must do something else we linked the chassis of that and made a foot there Nick Faldo car way above me which was the 405 for a five years that had an overdrive like the 50 showed a great range of development of style and models I mean the the 402 the 401 was a big leap and from the 403 to the 404 405 another another big lead with great great distinctions in style yes then then we we were making an engine yes very lightweight into we could have had a 3.5 thing we were short doing a deal with one of the companies to make an automatic gearbox that factory was further down so it didn't happen anyway that was going good too quick do 20 with truth I've seen drawings of that car yes and the 220 chassis of course and then we didn't have the gearbox from song so we decided to go along with our two litres but then we'd raised from 2-liter to 2.2 liter yes and strangely enough I was a simcha agent for you simcha car which was owned by Chrysler yes and Chrysler still just finished motor racing big wheel of Chrysler asked me to drive him around Brands Hatch in a little simpler wrong car yes of course and then we went back to Q blessing in London where Chrysler bought Simca had me there for lunch and then they came outside and they saw my four or six which had dew point truly drenching and said nice car so I said yes but we were making this but we didn't haven't gearbox so they've said no well okay oh boy she will send you a gearbox and the Celtic air box from a huge place at Herschel yeah where we did more development really there we had all the dynamometer so everything which we didn't have a filter enormous press send the gearbox but a Chrysler anything that's attached to it so we pop that in for a second four of seven and we were the first company to fit this brakes Linden jankura had it on sports cars coming back to the 220 project it was involved in the suspension designed I think so at that time with the towards the end of the two litre cars you were still actually Krupp motors and other yes then in 1960 as you know Bristol Siddeley whisperer Sydney who then own Bristol car I decided that they'd had enough yes stead of the company finishing dogs right yes decided to buy main some Bristol cars and then he got on to me and said would I come in and so he had 60% and I had fortune and he knew of course really they didn't have the facilities he didn't have any shows who didn't have any anything so you had a distribution network services as well as your showrooms part owner of the company and they had then I had this huge place attetion hundred car show yes that was making great deal of money and that really financed all except the actual production filter so built and did not need to have any any showrooms any work when I had the workshop now how huge workshops because I speak and of course we had so many agencies then had our bus which was small Fiat Fiat simcha niganda Aston Martin Ford Piper Aircraft brand Lee helicopters so three eight three acres of men would always stand so work well like that and then George worked had this prank yes actually in the car and I ran it for a bit long and then I then that crab that and then I had that until the bread pull mr. Lewis and mr. Silverton right came along in 1997 so so through the through the 70s he would you were developing the V aids the the body style changed much less radically from car to car 401 403 four or five or six more Eric car came out three yes tell me about the 603 a little bit how did that come about the 600 series as they were called yeah well I think acquired it by them and we decided we certainly needed the new body there's nothing wrong with the chassis yes so we designed this body in the six six seven three which really it was a huge minstry much more panoramic and all yeah it's a lot more glass more grass all the way around and that went on that I got the excellent Dabney Hobbs to do the body yes yes Denish savvier was my number one man really so there's the great there's the great design names of course the number of in the workforce had dropped drastically since the 50s and early 60s haven't it largely because it went to the Hessian where it was antique motors yes yes and I remember George Zweig coming up my little secretary at the time met him in London yes he came to him he said all this far bigger set up than we've got a Bristol yes we had about 60 people working at her attetion but we had all these other things going along same time all these cars AC yes stripper too racy and we made the engines they seem to know so they weren't force contracted short amount of space was left it tilt him in the old airfield thing first very small service part yes then we had on the Great West Road think 15 or 16 character no there's a great longevity among staff that worked that have worked at Bristol cars white and people stayed there for a very long time why was that well nothing they knew without saying it myself yeah it was very much involved with them in fact with the nasty business I finished with Bristol car the ones that were really loyal still kept in touch from me yes something about the way that it went they did like it I think I do apologize Tony for sitting you in a green car because I understand that's considered bad luck breeding I remember going to Monaco yes sixty years this week and the works cars have to be pasted painted green yes and so I decided to have mine they're very very like patent we called it then she was a Bristol color called Cambridge gray yes a sort of nasty little washed out green right right yes those days when you drove there you have to have British racing green it's a British racing color I refuse to have green so sixty years ago this this weekend you were at Monaco Monken and you were in the in the Fraser Nash with the rest of interface and Nash and what how did you do Liberace him the thought was he had the big battle with somebody yes Moss there were three brazen ashes entered yes standing and David clock yes and in practice we were about like that but the second day of practice I had no all pressure right so I had to attend to that Moses wheel dropped off very exciting and so we went back last week yes the same car belong to man he's a member of the owners planet yes miios my phrase dommage yes the original phrase a nice person and my Cooper Bristol yes and my four or four and he enters these cars in these historic things yes so my car was there again and how did it do this time well if it had been in the same to later thing it would have won yes I'm the second overall first to me there's a Bristol cracked again fast let me see sixty years ago that's to 1952 how else did your how did your motor racing go through the 50s what else did you get up - well then 52 because it just changed the form to them then from 52 yes to 55 I drove the phrase the Nash's a bit but there's no went on to go for Bristol which was a lighter car and that competed him that was and that ended that race in 1955 yes a good book in the nine hours in the dark and a chap called Ken Wharton who was very famous with crystalline phase and ashes he was in the Ferrari and the English would blow up I turn round and my friend mo super-steel English behind me praying me yes and that was the end of that we injured a couple of weeks nice born hospital yes never been able to terminex insane properly but so that Depp they escape to stop anyway because the engine formula changed to two and a half liter and the bristol engine which was already let's face it 30 horsepower down on Ferraris yes yes it wasn't it wasn't competitive it's two two and a half liters not not surprisingly then we didn't use the we car was in the showroom for 30 years yes 30 years and then came out the Goodwood Revival yes then it was sold to somebody many my only friend now got it so it was good wood was that the end of your your racing career ready yes 10 years a lot of a lot of drivers didn't make it through the 50s of course then in those days you couldn't didn't have to just race not about race and anything else we competed still right to the end everything from springs to romp reason yeah so simply so safety safety features were little little attracted little attention in those days speeds have got faster and faster cars have got lighter and lighter and there wasn't much attention to track safety either I think no different era so perhaps you've got perhaps you've got out at mode racing at the right time long time ago yes still here to tell the tale anyways nice to be back here so coming on to the coming on to the the love-letter days latter days cloud on yes financially financing the whole thing literally yes and then the men I got older know everybody kept saying you must sell out and do something going yes and many people came me companies small company and then the coast unfortunate man my great friend was brown crumpled yes the Concorde here and then was in charge of filter and a young fellow been coming in and out of show like everybody else saying oh I love the car I'd like to join you and so and I said goodbye and then he was buying and selling old pops his fellow yes old aircraft pass we went into truck Shaw BAC wasn't much of a business he had although he said he was a jet spamming me now quite untruth and trouble sure he's mentioned to Crabtree she said he said you know Tony crook and brown rang me up said get in your airplane which I didn't flew down to filter and there was this fellow yes and that was in 1997 yes so he joined me and at that time he was the son-in-law Bahama Joe loose then there so 50 percent then and kept on stage but in 2004 had finished completing they asked me to keep going on so I did and I'm forced to him at that time we've got the Blenheim going very well and I said to all the people who wanted to buy the company we're not gonna make a supercar not our 1401 supercar and of course young fellows idea just make a supercar yes frankly there was nothing made really two cars between 2004 now because everything was dropped for the fighter yes which would have been a blink firm it we'd been going on making another car men mutter komm okay he couldn't just compete going to break into Ferrari and Lamborghini after 2004 I stayed so was it was it a step too far was it too big a challenge for a small bespoke computer to make a supercar if we had like Ferraris selling road cars and all these people being a huge company to offset it then it would have been something yes go straight to drop everything everything [Music] was divorced couldn't get anywhere so gradually the company gradually the company became heavily involved in everything else yes went on which was the chamber what we had been doing what a design was the car we were going to call the Buccaneer Buccaneer tell us about the Buccaneers the Buccaneer chassis the good old separate chassis what we did when we made the thrusters the chassis was widened here yes I could sit down instead of sitting everything became the whole thing yes was very slinky you have six lights at the front and really slightly retrospectively the whole of me something like the whole of the 404 405 with the anything you have so everything just blow it down but you still have the good visibility you had you and independent rear suspension early - yeah no we hadn't actually fitted in the primes and then really I think it wasn't really necessary I suppose you you needed in tire entirely different chassis to mount a central differential and the chassis couldn't look at the chassis of a clue after this one yes very well sitting there now the chef would wait so you're set lower down so the whole thing came moon is easier access and then that was that we had my problems with despair we of course because everything was lower there same was good to go back in the back we did like the for one load down because it made distributions are quite slightly wrong quite a read what a radical step and it was had it told there and the new owners the owner wasn't just wasn't interested in the thing and one day I went down to Bristol literally showing up right so you'd had a you've made about a bark or approached - yes pictures I was sent man but so that was that and then we went on to fighter and then we made I think six or seven fighters that's all after which we only sold for I think I sold them more to present present owners of other cars and then were several left after that and there were no more blemings made there was one Fleming made from Pearson tell us about the finances a bit when were the best years of Bristol cars well actually strangely enough I think at the end of the eighties yes I was surprised to hear that my company made more money than any other British manufacturer but there were many left but I remember going in to see the man from British Aerospace money yes now said I made more money than British when everybody else had made a - amount and in terms of production figures which which were the best which was the best four hundred people really setting in one lump because they weren't quite ready and then they went and they were going out and then I suppose it was never very much you had a big workforce though then at the 50s and you you had they had they had was it two or three hundred at the factory not as many as that no we had facilities in the aircraft factory so you see a lot of crossover but then by the time we we took over it did Windell that must have been led to some difficult accounting decisions 60 with what with work being done in the aircraft factory now where we really--we we were concerned when Bristol cars became George works and now yes but that was that but then it was a matter of pain the airplane camera for whatever was use the work they did yes yes because I supposed aircraft inspection standards and hence aircraft labor rates will be much higher than car rates and so the standard should be higher and the inspection costs the most certainly Whittle it back down yes yes I remember going into when it was still the airplane company yes and bit of paper needed typing yes there was a long big typing school and I learned to type at my first school momentum and all the girls were typing I said give me the typewriter baking things sell myself yes I think they will really walk proud but bear then we will cost we were at the old laundry yes Prosser O'Neill's laundry cross around yes was there and then when it was acquired from the airplane company that was sold off we went back to where the old armament thing went you wouldn't have had a I don't think you had a hand in the 450 racing project not best no no except that I it was me that George Wright what happened there we were doing terribly well with race national yes and of course the white family in the old infant family really didn't tell me well done not much point of it so there was an agreement I think for six years yes six years they would only sell engines to phrase national right there was before we seldom to AC and the engine will only be sold fresh Nash and then when I'm few others were doing braised Nash and so on the next thing that happened was that when that ended three engines was sold to Cooper awesome did very well but then George sweat said why well why can't we have a why should we have a racing car and so on so forth yes and of course what happened then was my old place Raymond mains then became er a and we bought the G type type chassis thought the Bristol engine him but that G type was nothing to do with Bristol that was er a so the G type chassis was wrong the G type chassis was the inspiration from which the 450 was developed that's right so then they decided to enter these races then and they didn't he didn't blink I mean they didn't know much about it and I'd be because I've been racing for what six or seven out of my ten years then yes lost and space strange because you know the idea was to do what everybody else was doing but it was me actually tell why privately I said really speaking it's no good trying to go into all the races all over the country no best thing was to have a car we could show that could be Griffin lasted long periods yes so there was no real intention to gravity googled or Silverstone no Monday on him Monaco anyone else yes that's why it was and stopped they did employ sort of semi well professional people and paid them to drive but thereafter everybody wanted more money a rich me we were going to have ever scared to drive Gerrard was going to drive and Salvadori we're going to drive yes but we were all signed with different petrol companies to Bristol who were of course major sponsors then and since Bristol yes well in my case I was signed up with also sitting damn rope cows bits pieces and paid we used to be paid those days the beginning of a season and then paid for everything in one or first second there but if you couldn't drive another car and no one was laughing with the airplane camera will be P yes Milwaukee and Salvadorian Iowa Shh yes sir so I said to him oh you know just to drive frankly lovely but the drive at the mall which is really the only race then there was Rams after that but LaVon was the only place really at the mall and it didn't take no frankly so I said you know get some people and say look well they can drive it it's a road consult so they had a journalist and accountant to know yes Mickey popol who was a one of the I don't think he drove right he been some form he came and I think he took part in testing or possibly in some part he's still around he still competes and there was a man who was shot back we finish well lately lately : yeah and he he was supposed to be driving for yes for nothing shot by Ruth Ellis yes yes so that that came like that and then as you know they raced in it and I remember saying the first thing which strangely enough the first car we had was one with things and things that we put it on the Motor Show stand yes with a 401 or 403 or something and my wheeze was to stand outside to stand as a member the pub and see what people said about our cars and there were two ladies went past and look to these things and it's a big big for mum you know let's go over to the Pete petit stand they super team they've got it for the N believes and the car when it first came out look see the pictures of the calf was beautifully clean everywhere yes it was me that said we have to drill holes everywhere you know I'm not an aerodynamicist and so the cars gradually got no more ugly there was a ritual things remember all bits of holes for air come but the first ones there I think we had the first one Gordon a Duke of Edinburgh looked at him and his standing had got a picture some of it next to a 401 or 403b looking felt yes but then afterwards 70 then the other one was just as quick and you could see out of it then the open month yes it had much had a much smoother life she had a thin on the macaroon yes yes so it was the thing to do was to do it like that and to let it drive them and then certainly not let it so when I when company came man before that I said to wait and I said my idea is to chop them up yes and you could say you kept you knew you kept the surviving one so the Duke of Edinburgh who Duke when we looked at it kind of smoked celebrities you tell you sold to them you know they've been quite a few now dozens and dozens near who'd you and who you recall well the first one Jimmy Stewart called himself Granger play another one and he had a three to eight BMW yes and when I first started my place and Caterham sorry the car just came out but there were no cars yes and their engines so I was getting breast engines and clunking them into BMW right justice and do a Granger is about them he had a 3-2 to 8 and somebody was tuning him up and his men rang me up and said oh would you like to look at his car industry week became absolute first with real friends yes those days and so I used to go all over the place with with him and then he his girlfriend with Gene Simmons and then we pulled off the jackpot because they made a film called Adam and Eve d yes and they decided to have his isn't her car yes so I sold them to for obtuse that's right and that of course really took off down a filter when we came down very very friendly with those two especially the girl yes we had the steering wheel club in brick Street yes and there were all racing drivers and all the things and some in one day I was out with Jean in her car and people laughed nowadays that's a coming Jean Mitchell to do me a lot of good camping here I can't come in there there were no stockings on imagine that no no I can't go in there with no stop I said it'll be a wonderful they went in there and I always remembered them there was John Cobb who and the world record yes and it was a very darphus emerges the end the thing would never talk to anybody but when she came in and of course it was terribly popular with her and then in the end after that there was Trevor Howard yes look at her sound sir and then somebody I forget his name was Bradfield bread one of them he had a Bristol something yes and he was a friend of charles xiv yes yes and they were in a health club and they his car was in for service and suddenly rang me up for the health club come quickly simple car said kiss me Bluto bring me the car don't send just bring me the car so I drove the car to the health club he got him with Charles for Tecate quickly shut the door go I said where we're going down the river so went to a huge tea place from me they were the health problem this huge no shop yes the health club that was so he went back with them and then after that they went on King Hussein of Jordan yeah he his name is in the blue downstairs all right which was being oh it was public and he what happened was his father born I think a fluoro something and it was they bought some freighters yes and this car was put in freighter and the father gave it to King Hussein when he was about 12 or 14 then he learned to fly at Filton right and as the boss I said what can I do for you and he said structure said I would like a car so he got the car then the curtain fell and then we were sitting share him Carol my daughter we worked together director and Emery we were sitting in a small office there and the door opening ten most unassuming lovely man in outside he had his men with guns and police himself guards hello sat down Emery made him a cup of tea and that thing we had the 402 and Agnes I'd like to run in the 402 say we got in the furrow too and this driver was driving him in the middle of London and I said would like me to drive so I was driving and the King said can't we go a bit faster this is true and the policeman there said go on turning up ago said I did 102 down the mouth right for one too right oh well the full 1/2 that's what he had and then he had a 404 and then he had rows of cars they kept getting people to bring them in he was lovely and he's because just up the road you know place where I lived and he just pop in sit down have tea he was lovely and then after that the more recent man came Gallagher yes oh no got it yeah and he had he was very good people thought it was strange but he and his then before I was married Patsy Kensit cancer yes I didn't recognize him now sitting in the office behind Emory recognize anybody assuming he was there he looked at her 6:03 and then I was brought out and spoke to me and they said oh we're going to someone and a continent we'd be back never have a run secret so arrangements were made to have a run and he was aircraft was late but scrapped me is amazing they actually most impressed if they rang up say they were hmm say wasn't what people said he was right so they let you know he didn't let you know and then we got bono bono Berto right and he he had a brigand I think one of those yeah pretend yerson in the hold of the rear boot was filled with musical equipment right and it was in for service at the Great West Road and a man who worked for Bristol no fellow there to kind of wonder about came up and the boys there he is he when he had to drive the car back to filter to have something done on mom man where's the radio they said of course they gave him the money going down the greatest road this old gentleman press the button and of course some flares of pop music so he had one and Peter Sellers oh wow sillas was fantastic seller started with I had this huge vegetation yes and sellers was always filming at Shepperton yes and they also had huge petrol station roller because I was all fun and spare so then that's just pumps everywhere came past filled up in an old Buick and there was Bristol no outside the factory there came in he said that's lovely but I don't like to lose she said I would like a car service industry we could sell you one of these anyway every day went past we became the game break friends every day came past he would call in in literally five or six time he had his old Americ lovely American new cars which Tony said doesn't hold a road just to stop I'll leave it and I want him and then he'd go after there were rows of these in in the end had the Peter Sellers checkbook right and I bought all his cars from all those cars and then his wife then Britt came along who was also a friend of kept my Carol's and they had that they are T in this for ten yes a for ten Drophead and then he had the rose of all sorts of cash yes not only Bristol cuz I was everything at the same time still with owning bush blow off time and I think so yes sellers all the people I remember min I used to go with my wife every week we used to go up to do a gracious their various and in the evenings pink sounds and all the people there but ronica naked on and they kept saying I should teach all these strange people to try but I couldn't teach anybody to drive anything and we used to go out man so that was that and then there were more and more of a contemporary man yes you must do you miss those days with those contacts it must I miss every day up to July 2000 Tsin yes yes I must have been involved victory from 45 55 65 75 85 95 mm 62 years yes then suddenly yes that was terrible and then nobody ever contacted me again and sure everybody was turned against me half the stuff turn the other way and now they've all gone well there's a few left at Brabazon cars and is one or two left it well yes and those two David Jenkins yes well I was feeling bed down you always used to bring me up oh he was there he was a coach builder Jeff Marsh runs it yes yes and he had an awful time of the new people every time it's really bad because it was very methodical they knew how to do everything lame what sort of Christmas when they were making this for vital thing every day would be changed this is wrong take that out and then the man would go away for a month nobody else was allowed to touch it it was the you had maxbox trauma now Bobby sign the blinking car yes not the man who came right east this box trimmer did it and he just could not stand it right boxin couldn't understand it and went and then we got so what he kept from the notice yeah so folks I'm couldn't what couldn't deal with it couldn't deal with mr. Silverton right sorry but it was really his accountant fellow said that his mind would change after 10 seconds yes now we used to go down in the end I used to always flatten down yes in the end I used to meet him in the gravest road in the car literally said I had the man crapped yes and I would be like a little surfing sitting there now when we get there a little notebook of God I said now what I'm going to do soon as we get in what we're going to do we're going to do this we're going to that and to do the other thing first of all we'll just deal with administration or this and that the other then we go out and shops gone so soon as we arrive of course they will get out brush into the car and say yeah I'm going out in this and for hours he'd be gone just so then obviously so the design was finished because I was finished by people from Lotus was it when box drama went and then they were still going on with it with them this man this man is to come from Norfolk every morning I think four times so we kind of boat about just goodness and go back at night and arrive on the dead time and then we would arrive not be addressing live dim we would arrive two hours late and then the man wasn't hardly spoken and often blow will go yes and there we go and then the fighter which she had the fighter out and I drove it several times frankly I was stuck inside what did you make of it well it's a good idea because it got a Viper engine yes thing Inman and then made a body and admittedly we had a body all designed in or tested it in London you will versus even they've got a wind tunnel model lot of the things girl models and hope that was that was good but then things were just altered all the time yeah frankly okay we had gullwing doors did they work okay yeah they shot and I wish I didn't have a mobile phone nice to go out and try the car and I'm out in Bristol area one one day yes and the engine stalled I couldn't get out the doors were shut no communication whatever twice just Marsh game came out for me same and things were going wrong his wife at the time who was Louis's came down to the factory and he said oh they're checking up on me checking up on me and he took my wife out wearing flat out down the motorway real wing door and then after that I didn't know what him because that was first when Michelle was in 2004 - Sam Draper had always had the car and then I sold another one to man who had lots of cars a Swedish man yes and then I sold one to German man living in England and then a so one to an American man before and I think it's bad all together yes sure there was three there's still something I think yes yes so it was such a shame that we didn't if we'd had something else going along at the same time came to bring many more The Buccaneer yes we would then have had no going along any money I should do that but hmm so you'd have had bread and butter and icing on the cake no clarin that's different even Ferrari and all those people what did you enjoy most about at all you've once once you told me it was the Gottis and helicopters possibly well you know it was just a car nut wasn't there really I just want to do that and work seemly hard day and night for years so it's terrible to find some me the end came when did lock the door yes yes the whole idea was to bring in new people and the man himself came in in tears and said he was bankrupt I don't know what he was and said that his monster everybody we've got to go including him but he wasn't going cautious and then he just you didn't scoop anybody out said Amory we knew everything he knows but now of course he was locked out again yes I've got a supplementary question to ask well we went in the word Zagato and you must have dealt with cigars over the years the Garter came about because the God who made the body for our bus yes and I was it was a stunning yes say I had that been a busy our Boston Porter yes and met the got her and then she got her made the bodies so then we made this a go to Bristol and Jenny DeCarlo lovely man yes and he made me the concession therefore there's a girl for you cake interesting me it's one car which belongs to now it's belongs to Harry well that car we made two shutters one we made in Bristol which belongs and the other one that was for body cobble together Bristol yes and the other one went to sea otter and that was made for my Carol my daughter Curtis and then then it went sure where but while it was belonging to me to Carol why we're an Aston Martin John we're an Aston Martin um David Brown rang me up and said David Brown wants to look at that little car because I was trying to sell the gato coachwork in England yes so I went to Tilton where they went the old airfield there no everything was shot from upstairs yes the window open no they asked me to teeth so I went loose it's a car already arrived there and waited for John weren't kept nobody came out window open there that was brown right that you crook they said yes I said the car yes all right in the window shut and then mr. look at the db4 GT s - not exactly cigar it's a bigger car my Carroll my daughterís cigar - Bristol and then we made one cigar - longer chassis on a 407 chassis yes and that went to America Tony Wroten off yes yes one and only one well that I never finished because it was front heavy that belonged to my friend I have a whole boat for a while strap and of a new home but man yes he was he had a trade yes Ben it was all front-heavy right right answers Matt Carroll was a model some stage yes and so was well Britain was that reticulan - yes and dazed - Karen we used to live will come near pearly she had it some days and acting had another - and they lived in sin death and penalty of which no sir friend him would be to sell as he had brows with with Brit and they had a suite on the top of the Dorchester right now I went up there and Brits had little baby called Victoria right and they'd had some form of rau and they said Tony would take Victoria out I still must live in that place there so I was seen pushing a baby right and one of the drivers asked my wife what's he done to the four twelve of course had a had a very big cigar so influence yes make fun women when we went to the Gatto we used to go for the day yes in the happy day yes I had a trap there Dennis Sevilla hated flying yes would never fly we went eventually to the Motor Show in New York and we were on the flight deck because I went in early seven four seven maybe had been a flight engineer yes and the platters year and that was his last flight and the thing so we took Sharon but any rate when we went as a gaucho we had this fellow piatti he was a very famous little Italian designer who did a lot with the mini and had awful habit of picking things up putting him down he'd see me race ago will make became friends he introduced me to her about them she got her so when we were making this for one two he came out with us and then and when we got there they've got a chassis with a bit of body on him and it was 18-foot long right and I wanted to seem to be 16 foot - yes and so they were all talking in Italian in yet he kept picking things up and putting it down he had slide rule slide rule and then was a terrific round I spoke no Italian hardly normos foul going on and they don't endure draw with some of the plans and piatti had looked in there and they left this man slide rule in and then we had to get back to the airfield to fly back again - but you've got them to chop two feet off it yes then we design the turbo wasn't just a bit of a temper that my maneuver aircraft yes the turbo was made for that and that turbo was to the development it wasn't just picked off the floor forget who made it but wasn't Garret assembly the turbine Dennis said they did all the things to put them out of folding and so then we're like a rocket that was both factor yes quite a design challenge again for a small company one one last question and I've got a bit out of sequence going going back to the start the Polish connection I'm moving about the birds of dr. Popov school ya Yin Tong kindled me to dogma and it was it was it was just a squad it was three hundred squadron during the war sister division bombed on me and you were then stabbed is the action of the thing yes and yes and necklace and remember the CEOs name the minute Glen ashore somebody so you were you a liaison officer eventually yes grabbin in the desert before then I came back and then so there were good days and my sister married a pole yes and he died well she divorced him he died yes fantastic days tell us about the connection with Vincent and Bristol cars Vincent de Charney Vincent HRT yeah well then he ordered a car yes and we talked about the back and exchange for the car yes yes which we did a lot of things other bums which is people in Blackpool yes there was a 401 understand white car with purple upholstery horrible and one man owned a pleasure beach Blackpool and at the other end of the black pool didn't know there was a man putting coloring matter into foodstuffs oh yes and both of them had expressed interest in the car and both arrived and remember the day on the boat Coast and they both arrived bang just like that me hated each other right and one and said Tony have come to buy the car and the other one said get away I have come to buy the car and it was really a fight understand you know I don't care then when one of them went to the BEM with the pleasure beach yes and remember it had pressed button doors yes press buttons now could go off if somebody press the button outside and you tried to press the button will go off half-cocked and it would stay that if Jeremy anyway the car was something you only had the thing under Pleasure Beach and the man was in the car and somebody pressed the button and they were all roaring with laughter near Lancaster action am a linguist Romero action and they were pushing the car back was informed shouting ha ha ha you were stuck in the car anyway the man afterwards rang me up I wasn't there for free Gnomeo said I've been so insulted you've got to take the car back so I remember talking to Joel Christ said that's right if we go bad the car back you allowed to sell the car gained in those days they were all Russian you could make 10% so I went happening my check in the railway train arrived this man gave him a check for the what's-his-name dress for the car money back thank you very much mr. rotten where you going oh I'm just just going up on the tram I see they got on the tram got off for the other end of Blackpool met the man who met terrorists three and showed it to him three hundred quid more than that and arrived back at Bristol make your small profit a good day's work good day's work thank you so much thank you you

Channel: Bristol Owners Heritage Trust

Views: 11,311

Rating: 4.9572191 out of 5

Keywords: Bristol Cars, Tony Crook

Id: Wj-YSHaYsTg

Length: 70min 50sec (4250 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2019