Classic Car Buyer Magazine No.215 Are Heritage Fleets at Risk? Back Issue

In this week’s issue of Classic Car Buyer, we remember the life of Tony Crook; best-known as the chairman and managing director of Bristol Cars – the British low-volume car maker of exclusive hand-built and fastidiously engineered models using the principles of aviation in their
construction (and cars which were only bought by a select few).
We’ve spent much of this week carrying out the necessary research for this piece and of course we came across some of the tales surrounding the man and his business while doing so, which, for me, sums up both him and his eccentric approach to life very well. Arguably the best-know of these stories is that Crook kept a Scalextric set in his office at
Bristol’s now-famous Kensington showroom and he would often challenge new customers to race him on it. You might argue that a bit of light-hearted fun would serve as a good ice-breaker between customer and salesperson, but only at Bristol would victory play a key role in deciding whether you were judged to be allowed to join the hallowed ranks of Bristol ownership. It followed that in his later years in charge of the firm the showroom would often be locked and would-be customers had to be ‘accepted’ in. Apparently, Crook is said to have refused to unlock the doors for Michael Winner. Guilty by association with Jeremy Clarkson, James May is also rumoured to have been refused entry.
One of my personal favourites though is the tale of how Crook once posed as an Arab oil sheik at the London Motor Show and bought all the cars on the Aston Martin stand, just so they would have nothing to display. Similarly, he reportedly paid six tramps from London’s streets to stand around Rolls-Royce’s pitch for an entire day in an attempt to drive potential customers away. Finally, when out driving a new Bristol he is reputed to have slid to a halt in a haze of tyre smoke when he just happened to spot a police speed trap.