Bristol Type 405 Saloon
The type is
easily identified if only because of its four doors. Unlike the Type 403 and
the Type 404, the Type 405 the Body, Bonnet and Boot Lid Badge centre ground
is coloured Yellow matching the earlier series 2 litre cars.
The Type 405
was the first series production Bristol fitted with flashing indicators
instead of the earlier Semaphore/Flipper type. It was the first series
production Bristol provided with Laycock de Normanville overdrive as
standard specification from the initiation of production, though this
particular refinement had been available to order in late production Type
403 and in the Type 404. The engine fitted to complement the gearbox was the
Bristol 100B2 series, also factory fitted to a very few late series Type 403
cars.
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Rear ¾ view shows the much longer cabin compared with the Type 404 and the peculiar proportions of the doors,
unusually the rear passenger doors being much wider than the front doors.
There is a lot of glazing on this car with many panes which might have
promoted some owners to give it the nickname the "Flying Greenhouse".
Compared with the more restricted cabin of the Type
404 the all round visibility is much improved.
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This profile view may be compared with the views in the Type 404
display. Again the Spare Wheel is stored beneath the Nearside Front Wing so
freeing more usable Boot area.
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This head on shot clearly illustrates the powerful and yet aerodynamic
treatment of the car reducing the natural resistance to the frontal area of
the body in motion, - in so doing achieving a quite remarkable low drag
coefficient in its day, not bettered in production Saloon cars for many
years - but at the same time the cleverly sculptured shape also creates two
wedge shaped profiles over which the air channelled between the Wings and
Radiator Air intake progressively help create a greater down force used to
hold down the front of the car when it is travelling at higher speeds. A
very similar treatment had first been produced on the Type 404, but the
combination of lighter body weight, balance and shorter chassis, contrived
to make it less effective compared with its performance on the Type 405
designs, both Saloon and Drophead Coupé.
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