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Stellantis has no plans to bring back the Dodge Viper, preferring to take its performance flagship in a different direction. But the Viper’s V10 is getting a brief resurrection in another supercar that was thought to be dead. This one’s British, and it’s got gull-wing doors to boot.
Bristol Cars is one of numerous small British automakers that made small-batch sports cars in the postwar era, and experienced a failed revival decades later. Bristol coasted into the year 2003 on fumes, but new ownership wanted to get things restarted, so it launched the Viper-powered Fighter. This turned out to be the last car produced by the automaker, which ceased manufacturing operations in 2011. When that happened, according to a Bristol press release, five chassis were left over. Now the company is finishing them as a first step toward a full comeback.
Sam Frost/Bristol Cars Group Ltd.
Sam Frost/Bristol Cars Group Ltd.
Sam Frost/Bristol Cars Group Ltd.
Sam Frost/Bristol Cars Group Ltd.
Bristol
The first of the newly completed cars was recently unveiled at Salon Privé in the U.K., and the timing couldn’t be better. This year marks the 80th anniversary of Bristol’s production launch. As recounted by The Autopian—which likes a Viper-powered car as much as we do—Bristol Cars was founded in 1945 from the remains of AFN Limited. AFN was itself the descendant of Frazer Nash and the U.K. importer for BMW—as the automotive arm of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which needed something else for its workers to do after the ending of World War II curtailed the demand for warplanes.
Production started in 1946 with the Bristol 400, based on a prewar BMW chassis and engines. Thanks to its previous life as a BMW importer, the German automaker’s inline-sixes defined Bristol’s early years. Bristol also provided these engines to AC Cars for the Ace Bristol sports car until 1961 when, seeking more power, it opted for Chrysler V8s. AC was forced to find a new engine supplier, eventually partnering with Carroll Shelby to transform the Ace into the Cobra.
Bristol, meanwhile, put its supply of American V8s into stately coupes, a recipe that worked for just over 40 years. The Fighter changed things up by cramming the 8.0-liter V10 from the then-current version of the Viper into a chassis about the size of a period Porsche 911. The engine produced 525 horsepower in standard form, but Bristol also offered a 600-hp version. The top speed was a claimed 210 mph, which would have made the Fighter one of the fastest production cars of its day.
Sam Frost/Bristol Cars Group Ltd.
Sam Frost/Bristol Cars Group Ltd.
Sam Frost/Bristol Cars Group Ltd.
Sam Frost/Bristol Cars Group Ltd.
Bristol
Because there’s no justice in the world, those awesome specs weren’t enough to keep the fighter airborne. Bristol estimates that just 15 cars were completed over the eight-year production run, and the company’s assets were passed around like a hot potato over the following decades. A new model called the Bullet was unveiled in 2016 and failed to reach production. But through it all, a stash of chassis and Viper V10s remained.
A new entity—Bristol Cars Group Ltd.—is overseeing the assembly of the remaining cars. It’ll even build a twin-turbocharged Fighter T with a claimed 1,012 hp, and it claims the newly completed cars will be Show or Display eligible, meaning they can be imported to the U.S. as long as they’re driven less than 2,500 miles a year until they turn 25. It’s unclear what’s next for Bristol, but with the Viper gone and the Lamborghini Temerario switching to V8 power, there’s a good chance one of these Fighters could be the last new V10 car sold here.
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Stephen has always been passionate about cars, and managed to turn that passion into a career as a freelance automotive journalist. When he’s not handling weekend coverage for The Drive, you can find him looking for a new book to read.
