Car pictures of the week
In this week’s car pictures from issue 304, we take a look at the highlights from our drive in the 200mph Bristol Fighter
Bristol met its demise in 2020 following two tumultuous decades in which it attempted to revive the brand with an ambitious new supercar: the Fighter. In issue 304, Peter Tomalin gets behind the wheel of one of the few examples that hit the road, and in this week’s car pictures we take a look at Aston Parrott’s highlights. Pick up your copy via the evo shop to read the feature in full.
Bristol turned to the creation of a supercar in the late ‘90s in order to revive the historic brand, after years of a slow decline in sales of its Blenheim coupe. Though perhaps an unconventional approach for a company like Bristol, it proved the firm had moved into the modern age and was capable of producing a machine capable of injecting life back into the firm.
> Mini-based sports car – dead on arrival
The Bristol Fighter was the result, a supercar with huge performance yet a focus on everyday useability. Those unique gullwing doors were chosen specifically to improve ease of access, with a spacious cabin and strong visibility also a high priority. Under its long bonnet is the same 8-litre naturally-aspirated Chrysler V10 as found in the Viper, only with Bristol’s own camshafts and a bespoke carbonfibre induction system.
An output of 525bhp and 525lb ft of torque made it one of fastest road cars available when the first example was produced in 2004, sending it from standstill to 62mph in 4sec and onto a blistering 210mph top speed. Bristol wasn’t going to stop there, either, with plans for a 660bhp Fighter S and 1012bhp twin-turbocharged Fighter T in the works.
As captured by Aston Parrott, its carbonfibre, aluminium and kevlar-reinforced plastic bodywork was sculpted primarily by aerodynamics, something that certainly can’t be said for the models that came before it. It did without dramatic aerodynamic devices or aggressive lines, instead focusing on a low coefficient of drag.
Yet while the Fighter was a promising sign, complex internal politics meant that Britain's supercar never really got that chance to shine as brightly as contemporary startups from Italy and Sweden. So what exactly happened to Bristol? Pick up your copy of issue 304 to find out, available online at the evo shop.
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Car pictures of the week: archive
Below are some of our favourite images from previous editions of evo car pictures of the week. Click on the pictures for the full galleries.
Gallery 1
Click below to see all the images of our first car pictures of the week gallery, here featuring the indomitable Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, mk1 Volkswagen Golf GTI, Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 and the stunning Porsche 911 re-imagined by Singer.
Gallery 2
Here we dig further back into the evo archives where we pull out some iconic images of the Ford GT slightly out of context in the European Alps, a TVR Sagaris in central London, the Audi RS2 as well as one of our most iconic twin tests between the Ferrari 599 GTO and Lexus LF-A.
Gallery 3
The previous-generation Bentley Continental GT seemed to get better with age, a notion mirrored by the Jaguar E-type when in modern ‘lightweight’ form. Both of these British icons, as well as the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 feature in gallery three.
Gallery 4
Fans might have cried fowl when Ferrari decided to turbocharge the Ferrari 488, but it’s not like Ferrari don’t have a history with turbocharged V8 engines. Here the 488 co-stars alongside the stunning F40, while elsewhere in this gallery we take a Porsche Cayman GTS to Japan for a stunning mountain blast.
Gallery 5
Italian twelve-cylinder supercars seem to be the main agenda in the fourth evo car pictures of the week gallery, here featuring four V12 Lambos and the stunning 599 SA Aperta limited edition alongside its 550 Barchetta predecessor.
Gallery 6
GT3s and GT-Rs are just the beginning for gallery number six, with the Noble M600, Aston Martin One-77 and a couple of McLaren flagships filling out our most amazing gallery yet.
Gallery 7
A gallery of new and old, here the McLaren 720S cemented its place as a truly great supercar alongside a daring night shoot with an Audi R8 LMX, pitch a Nissan GT-R and Audi Quattro against each other on Welsh mountain roads and drive the original 'Hakosuka' GT-R.
Gallery 8
Ford's RS200 in a moody dark garage is just one of many amazing shoots in our 8th gallery, click on the image for the full gallery
Gallery 9
Click on the image below for our ninth car pictures of the week gallery, including this hardcore lot!
Gallery 10
Our tenth gallery turned it up another notch, including the wettest shoot in history (apparently).
Gallery 11
The best hardcore Ferrari supercars and more feature in our 11th car pictures of the week gallery.
