Velociphile - No longer in the building
1397
You missed out as LJKS was a lovely person to talk with
his quiet, slightly lispish delivery was charming and I cherish the interview I did with him in the 90s. We talked about Pomeroy, Soichiro Honda, piston area, Rolls Royce Crecy, cannonballs..... and the fact that revs weighed nothing. lol
One of the legends goes that he was 'told off' by one of his editors not to write in such an inaccessible way for ordinary readers. Thus he submitted his next column entirely in Latin or Greek (I forget which)..... I wonder if he sometimes become his own myth and had to live up to it - not sure. Anyway, the last time I saw him he was chatting on his mobile standing by his beloved Honda Prelude. I wanted to say hi, but didn't want to intrude. That was the last time I saw him and he died a few months after.
It's an overused term, but LJKS was an absolute one off and a very sad early loss to cancer. 
Velociphile
The Bristol Bullet will make public debut at UK's Salon Privé
The Bristol BULLET is launched on the 70th Anniversary of the founding of Bristol Cars Limited. I don't know much about this brand but here's the info for you hard core petrol heads. Cheers, Anthony...
I must have had 4-5 books on the Bristol and even tried to buy one once
due to articles by LJK Straight, the most snobby of all British writers. But Bristol are the most snobby of all British brands, and could see through me right away. The sales director (and owner of the brand) essentially patted me on the head and said, "C...
Ok, that's weird...
This morning I found myself thinking about the one and only LJKS (Setright not Straight, though). I won\'t bore you with why he popped into my mind (all to do with old copies of CAR Magazine from the 80s), but what a coincidence! He was an absolutely bril...
Yes, Setright
The spell corrector did it while I wasn\'t looking! He used to write about and visit the Honda dealer in Shepperton, when I lived just across the river in Weybridge. And I saw him at car shows, but never talked to him. I got rid of my oldest mags a few ye...
You missed out as LJKS was a lovely person to talk with
his quiet, slightly lispish delivery was charming and I cherish the interview I did with him in the 90s. We talked about Pomeroy, Soichiro Honda, piston area, Rolls Royce Crecy, cannonballs..... and the fact that revs weighed nothing. lol One of the legen...
You lucky man!
So the reason I posted above was because my folks are moving house and they asked me if I wanted to keep my old issues of CAR from the 90s. I allowed them to dispose of them (well, all but two from the 80s) as part of an anti-hoarding drive but felt a pan...
LJK Setright...
May have been snobby alright but still one of the coolest automotive writer IMHO They don\'t make them that way anymore... As for Bristol, remember an interesting episode of trying to help a German friend get one. He decided against it in the end but has ...
I didn't mean snobby in a negative way, just descriptive
For several years, I worked for a truly gracious (to me) but classically upper-crust British gentleman named Reginald Beresford Montclare. So I got a good dose of class consciousness that my American upbringing didn't quite encompass. Reggie was in the sa...
I know what you mean!
Read quite some of his writing Especially remember his tirade on car interiors going along the lines of \'wood is great in trees, not cars\'
I was working and living off/on in the UK from 1986-95
My employer in the US had been purchased by Lord Thomson of Fleet as he was wisely diversifying out of newspapers before they all collapsed (now it's Thomson/Reuters). They already owned half of Glass's Guides (car values) in Weybridge and I was seconded ...
Strange auto hehe looks like...
it was stuck transforming or a pokemon that hasn't fully evolved yet. Its an interesting vehicle but for that kind of money Or more I'd pick something else hehe
correct looks rich for a 370hp V8 @250k...but some luxury isnt exactly catered to noveau rich either...
....let alone value shopper, leasing/financing chaps. It is like if you try to buy a house at a certain lane in a certain neighbourhood and ready to pay twice and still get booted or try to get membership of a certain country club and never get a call bac...
Old article I wrote on Bristol....
www.network54.com ,+age+38+%BC. seems to not work: Here's the text for posterity from 2005. Sadly of course Tony Crook passed away. My visit to Bristol Cars Ever since I was a boy I remember being intrigued by the 411 in my “Observer’s Book of Aut...
Perhaps you and I visited on the same day
My experience was much like yours only without any extra cars being brought up for inspection. How can you not like a car called the Beaufighter? A car that holds its spare tire in the front fender (wing)? How can you not admire a car salesman named Tony ...
Thanks for this unique review!
I have been saddened to see them pass away but your experience shows at least one reason why it happened that way. Too bad - it really has been a progressive and most interesting company in its time.
Mr Crook certainly had an autocratic vision
but as well as the drive that gives, it comes often with a certain blindness too.
I met David E Davis once, and he reputedly had the same kind of aristocratic bearing
In my case, I was trying to buy a kit car called a Kougar (Jag drivetrain in bullet-shaped body) and to my amazement the seller turned out to be David E. I was in Detroit at the time and he invited me out to his farm and for a test drive. The winter weath...
SO UGLY!
Just kidding! I LOVE IT!!!! I know nothing about the manufacturer... but anyone who creates this level of eccentricity, detail, and beauty -- I am a fan.