In the beginning of the eighties the automotive world saw a resurrection of full convertible cars. For which the USA is the most important market of the world. Due to a rumor beginning at the start of the seventies that laws in the USA would ban fully convertible cars, producers in Europe ( Jaguar, Lancia, Volkswagen ( Golf ), to name a few ) started to build and sell half-convertible cars with a rollbar for more passenger safety. Bristol 412 is the perfect example for this type of car. Happily that so called "law" never came to fruition and as a result Bristol decided to develop a full convertible car based on the 412 S2.5 series. In 1984 this car was introduced as the "Beaufort". While the car was intended for the USA market it was only available in left hand drive version, albeit with the classic Bristol dashboard layout. Beaufort was equipped with a fully electrically operated folding roof, but the bulkiness of this construction had as a result that there was not enough space left for full size rearseats so one had to be satisfied with a small bench as emergency seating actually only suitable for children. A major drawback for a car of this size that could have been built as a full-fledged four-seater. Probably this is the reason why the car stayed a one-off, and in fact it is a prototype. Though nobody knows exactly why the Beaufort was not taken in series production rumor has it that the director of Bristol Cars - mr. Tony Crook - was indeed not satisfied with the limited usability of the rearseats. mr. Crook decided to keep the car for his own personal use and a few years later it was sold off to a to a regular customer of Bristol Cars. This model will be handbuilt on order only. The model comes standard with GKN wheels, but if you want a different wheel please ask us. Primrose yellow model comes with cream interior and cream convertible top cover. Customers can place an order through the order form, or email us. Normally we produce 100 off of our models, but we will produce only 60 off of the Beaufort. So be quick, or be......out of production.
