1953 Bristol 450 LM #38
Pilots: T. Wisdom, J. Fairman
Team: Bristol Aeroplane Company
Race: DNF (S.0 class) at Le Mans in 1953
Bizarre - BZ101 (resin)
Published 08/26/26
Founded in 1945, in Bristol, England, Bristol Cars was a British manufacturer of hand-made luxury cars. The company originated from the Bristol Aeroplane Company, an airplane manufacturer during World War II. Released in 1947, their first model was the Bristol 400, an updated version of the pre-war Fraser Nash BMW. In 1952, to increase brand recognition and prestige, Bristol announced that they wanted to race at Le Mans. To do so, they acquired the design for Robert Eberan-Eberhorst’s ERA G-Type, an open-wheeler for the F1 World Championship. Powered by a Bristol a 2-liter engine, the G-Type was, unfortunately, too unreliable for any chance of success. With the design in hand, in Autumn of 1952, Bristol created a new motorsport division, led by David Summers. Using the G-Type as the basis, Summers created a new two-seat sports car – the sui generis 450 LM.
Different from the G-Type, the chassis of the new car was relatively long (247 cm) and narrow (130 cm). The suspension system consisted of double wishbones at the front and de Dion tube at the rear. To reduce unsprung weight, Summer used inboard brakes, which for the time, were avant-garde. For the powerplant, Bristol used their BSX engine, a 1971 cm³ inline-6, capable of about 103 kW (140 hp). However, the prominent feature of the 450 LM was the body work, which was quite advanced. With Bristol being a division of an aircraft manufacturer, Summers had access to a wind tunnel. He consequently created a design that was as aerodynamically efficient as possible, producing a quite outlandish look for the era.
Bristol wasn’t after an overall win, they wanted to prove that the car was reliable. And perhaps, score a win in the 2-liters class. Despite the very short development time, they managed to manufacture four 450 LM (though some say there were only three). The factory team arrived at La Sarthe with three cars, two enrolled and one as reserve. Unfortunately though, neither of the cars finished the race. Both were out before the half-point, due to the same crankshaft problem. Nonetheless, before abandoning, Jack Fairman in the 450 LM #38, managed to easily break the S 2.0 class lap record. So, David Summers’ design proved to be efficient, but let’s be honest here: the car is fugly 😂.
This is one of those models that show up out of the blue. I was browsing MercadoLivre and glanced at this green model from Bizarre. It wasn’t listed as a Le Mans car, but I gave it a second look because it was so ugly 😁. I looked it up, and to my surprise, it was a Le Mans car. The price was right, and being such an oddball, there was no way I would pass on it. In 1:43 terms it’s a pretty neat model. However, with those dead-eyes for headlamps, I can’t say it’s Spark-good, though. This is an old mold, on par with Bizarre models back then. Nonetheless, the paint job is very nice and details are crisp in general. So for Le Mans nuts like me, who like an oddball, a GREAT model.