5. Stefan Cembrowicz on Life in the Filton Works in the 1950s

to drive. I don't know how you do that Stepan yeah hi when did they move from the airplane factory to the laundry room um quick anyone know I started school in '54 yeah and they were in the laundry over there but I never knew that the laundry operated by bus around 1950, but I never found out when they actually moved the automobile division to the laundry. it's it's still in the factory yes yes yes I I I'm not a I'm not aware of that I can't say um what we have we have so oh there's a Buck boot look uh there's the Buck front end of the 401 minus its front section um there's a series of 401 in various states of assembly um there's probably someone else we can zoom in on, someone else in the background uh, I mean, the detail with these professional photographs is fabulous and uh they're Very good, not just focused and exposed, but composed um, it's my pleasure, um, where are we?, don't touch the middle one, touch the middle one, well, finally, here is the most assembled car and this talk is from an inspector who looks very grumpy and obviously doesn't it is. taking prisoners and imagines him muttering to himself, "this must have increased the cost of producing the car enormously because they had a lot of inspectors on the production line checking that everything was perfect and maybe that's more important on an airplane than in a car, but of course we all benefit from it, wow, what do I do, it's not like Eric's story.

I don't think it's been 10 years and here's the final product. I'll just say that. many of us know it's a single piece of aluminum casting, something quite extraordinary and if you've removed one, there's a length of thick aluminum, yes, long, and that would have been a huge shock absorption uh and the first ones were. mounted on an Alex Molton rubber suspension so they would absorb a kind of low impact thatchum, low speed injuries, low speed impact, um, no damage, um, I mean, the Touring didn't have anything like the bumpers were attached to the front panels, um, you can see the rubber. seal between the car and the bumper yeah you never see that on a restored car no, nice flat T section covering a multitude of six yeah yeah on um I can't mention Bristol cars without you knowing who Tony is Crook and here um Firstly, to say that he had nothing to do with the production or design of Bristol cars in the 2L era, although he does imply that he liked to imply that he had a very successful distributor for Bristol , must have been the biggest distributor, um. and was a very successful racing driver and won between two and 300 cups in the 40s and 50s, the newsletter published an article that we found in the magazine Motor Motorsport Motorsport in 1944 Motorsport Motorsport yes, detailing his motorsport adventures in times of war, which included um in the North African desert uh riding a Harley-Davidson A dispatch bike at 80 M hour through the desert and being able to rent a supercharged Mercedes convertible I'm thinking 540k or something like that that you put your foot in on the ground and the, activate the supercharger, well, we've all driven them, I mean, not in my dreams, in my dreams, um, this is it, this is it, this is tpo1 It's Peter, can you identify it?

He's a phase of Nash, isn't he? Of course, when motorsport got going and petrol was removed from rationing and it became possible to buy higher octane fuels, a lot of sponsorship came to motor racing because if you won using ESO or um Shell x00 motor oil um or Dunlop tires um the manufacturers sponsored you and rewarded you and in those days a lot of speed records were broken, just every two weeks someone would slowly get up to 200 miles for the 2 L uh and get more get more Dunlop shekels and things like that um gave up there we are now do you see the badge on the truck in the back uh top left umry Crystal 2 L well?

Bob Gerard's van OB Gerald's van that you see and outside in the tea room, unless someone's having the tea, unless someone's been robbed, that's my Bristol 2L badge which I think came off the wall in LaMore one day, wow! What do you keep putting everything? Well now Brist wants to get into racing, yeah there's another George Kendrick English wheel, two more, at least actually, and there's the 450 frame and what kind of light it is and how little insulation there is and this is the first iteration of the 450 and um uh, it's not an aesthetic success in my opinion, it's not a pretty sight, but they soon turned it into the most beautiful and beautiful 450 and, in fact, I have my own 450 at home and I think many of us we can say that because it's made by dinky, so there we are, there's the money in the background, we don't have that one, why didn't the body fit the chassis?

It was clearly too big, the body fit well on the frame, the first ones in um, do you mean aesthetically, do you mean the headlights, wheels, wheels, Bristol frame? we like this weekend well others Others can continue follow more commission 150 150 more commission the total price is 172 yes here we are going to negotiate here is another view um and what is that in the background yes, it is the Kendrick wheel again and you can see money also deployed and they have some gas welding here, has anyone tried gas welding aluminum panels? Yes, can anyone do it? Not reliably.

You look at it and then it's not there anymore and you see where it is. Where it gone? Well, I don't know where. It's not there it's something it's gone somewhere else nothing for you to put It and the charge are heat yes it absorbs suddenly it's not there yes and of course it transmits the heat so quickly isn't it? What intrigues me is that he had knowledge of the technology because they used it at Bristol on the steel frames of the Bristol wock but they didn't use it in the car division. What is murex welding?

Because that is mentioned a lot. Murex is a BC trade name for what we now call stick welding, straight arc welding. it's the but it was developed for the bristle swamp which has a box shaped steel frame yeah a very thin W tubular steel frame and they used what we do it's all argan AR welding on that but they always welded with gas the bodies in an extraordinary way from so far back, not in later years W TIG W hard the aluminum if you want to plan you break it yes, of course, he specified very wide areas in TIG and it is absolutely hard, well, I suppose they have experience in wartime in the production of airplanes, they got a lot of craftsmen who could who could do it and one of the guys who used to do it didn't wear glasses because it was easier to see his flame and the temperature changes he went blind hands up who has had arai anyone here we are we continuing with the 450 as I say, the first and ugliest iteration um there's a big press in the background I think this was I think this was at the Winton sale Did anyone remember removing something or something else with it?

Anyway, working, um Busy

works

hop, uh, John Hamshire. See that block of wood in the back? Where is? You can see it? You follow my arrow. See there. It looks familiar to you. Yes, you rescued them from Windon. It is not like this? I didn't notice any money changing hands John, I think Mr. I. I think I think it was, I think it was fortunately freed from the damn chaos of Windham, um and here's the result, uh, that's 54 and there's my badge of Bristol 2 L and I'm going to print this right because it's 70. years ago, but it might still be around, right?

Yeah, so unfortunately something happened to this um and everyone is very happy everyone had fun with this ending um and a little bit of celebration here notice the pipes as the pipes are inside. the alert position again um and um now these are some this is one of these are two of the drivers aren't they? Did anyone recognize them? Isn't that Lance Macklin? Is that so? I can't, I don't know, can I bring it closer? I can't say, I can't say, uh anyway there's the moment of glory um and what is this, what happened and then the explanation day when they get home and you have to explain after playing so George, well, was like This looks like I almost flipped it over, look at that big gash on the hood, yeah, my God, um and um, I think we're almost done here, um and oh, who are these people?

Alright, well, I think that's it, does anyone know who? this is It's the dual direction Tri is the triple is the triple direction yes with the rear seat driver's rear seat yes yes ladies and gentlemen thank you very much there is tea and there is more C can I just say one just say thank you Mary Jane for the I will do? That's it, well, let's keep joking and joking, that's free joking.