Bristol Owners Club : Type 404

Bristol Type 404 - 2 litre Coupé

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bytes This Type was built on a shorter chassis some 18 inches less than the norm of 114 inches.
It was fitted with a striking new Company developed Fixed Head Coupé Body.
Thus the Type 404 Fixed Head Coupé was first introduced in 1953.
This model came to be called "the Business Man's Express".
Its production space was soon to be shared with another -
similarly striking in shape, that of the much larger Type 405 saloon.
Production of the Type 404 ceased in 1955.

page revised 4th May 1998

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Bristol Type 404 Coupé
This Fixed Head Coupé was a new departure for the company in many ways. The first production series built as a Sports car. Very limited seating barely a 2+2 an even smaller passenger cabin than the Type 400, which just barely seated 4 persons. A new frontal treatment, dispensing entirely with the traditional BMW vestigial front grilles, in favour of an air scoop said to be reminiscent of an inverted aircraft engine nacelle. Another air scoop on the Bonnet to improve the flow to the triple carburettors on the Bristol 100B series engine, coupled to a 4 on the floor manual shift gearbox.

( Full size image 51k jpg )
The engine in this type was fitted with a single six branch exhaust manifold leading to a single pipe system. The car introduced the principle of the under front wing stowage for the spare wheel to the production models, thus releasing additional boot space. It is stored in the left hand side front wing flank locker. This feature was to be inherited by all future Bristol Production Types including the Bristol Blenheim. This model also introduced a form of dual braking system being fitted with Master and Tandem cylinders. Instruments are presented directly to the front of the driver in a binnacle set forward from the fascia panel. Like the Type 403 the Hub Cap and Bristol Body Badge ground is coloured Red.
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Front ¾ view of 404 showing how frontal treatment breaks away from the previous type's BMW style radiator grilles, the new air scoop on top of bonnet, shortened cabin and fixed head coupé styling, perhaps better illustrated in the next picture.

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Views of the profile of the 404 showing its very sleek lines and compact cabin. The style in profile is not that dissimilar to the shape used in the Type 450 Le Mans team road race cars of 1953 and 1954 which were being developed at the Bristol factory during the same period of time.
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( Full size image 57k jpg )
This 404 rear view shows the normal rear lights, the central fuel filler cap. The rear reflectors are non standard. More unusual is that this particular car was fitted from new with a small access hatch to an additional storage compartment above the rear bumper. Only one other 404 has been reported with this same feature, whilst a third variant built to special order has a larger Boot Lid and the Fuel Filler cap cover relocated onto the near side rear wing to the side of the Boot Lid. Note also the pronounced rear wing top fin styling which was to be carried on to the Type 405 and Type 405 Drophead.

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