Back to back: Bristol or Jensen?

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Considering you are an off-centre, slightly eccentric motor aficionado with a soft spot for British chariots, you’ll prefer this duo over any standard Jaguar/Aston/Rover/Riley. Well, lucky you. Both cars are for sale during Brightwells Sunday sale on the 24th in Bicester (click here).

Lot number 65 is for a 1963 Bristol 407 with its 250bhp Chrysler-sourced 5.3-litre V8 engine and all the grace, pace and space even a Jag Mk10 owner dreams of. The auctioneer: “While the rest of the world went weak at the knees for the new Jaguar E-Type, the boffins at Filton were quietly installing a big new engine into a reworked chassis that was to become the basis of Bristol cars for the next five decades.” This 407 is just one of 88 built and one of six that is believed to be on the roads of the UK nowadays. It was first registered to ‘a senior figure’ at Wilmot-Breeden Ltd, a Birmingham-based automotive products manufacturer. He took the car with him when he retired, transferring ownership to his wife who kept it until 1987. The engine was fully rebuilt in 1997 at around 100,000 miles. Today the odometer shows a mileage of 101,904. It is estimated to sell at £28- to £32,000.

Slightly less introvert is the 1964 Jensen CV8 Mk2 with its even larger but also Chrysler-sourced 6.9-litre V8. The body is of course glassfibre on a tubular space frame chassis. The Mk2 originally had a 6.3, but the eight-cylinder of this car was… Not all of the history of it is known, but it is believed to have spent some of its earlier days in Ireland before coming to the current (English) owner in 1994. From the sales blurb: “Resplendent in Red with a Mushroom hide interior (what's in a name?), the car has spent most of the past 22 years in dry storage from which it emerged for its photoshoot.” That does mean, however, that the car needs some tender loving care, but then the estimate is considerably lower than that of the Bristol: £15,000 - £20,000. Which is the one you would go for?

(Words editor, pictures Brightwells)

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