SOLVED: Djetset #182 - Lester-Bristol c.1956-60

[faksta]

What a hard nut it appears to be!

BTW I've found a picture of Halton with some info, and it was CLimax powered...

[faksta]

Eh..was D-Type right about the fact it has Cooper chassis? I have now re-read the whole thread, and didn't understand whether the answer is yes or no - I think there was no answer in fact

[Djetset]

To the best of my (very limited) knowledge on this one, I don't believe it has a Cooper chassis but I'm not 101% certain.

[faksta]

You also mentioned it has a strong relation to Lister-Bristols. Was it a technical relation, I mean the chassis or something.. I understand the engine was the same, of course

[Djetset]

Yes the strong relationship was the Bristol engine common to both cars.

[faksta]

From the side it looks rather close to the HAR Special, which it is not. It was Daimler powered and has a completely different front end now when restored. But, what is more important, HAR would be a repost here 

Still maybe there is some relation between them? Don't call me mad, but could this be a modified Swallow Doretti body?

[Djetset]

Strange you mention the H.A.R. Special as I was at the Brooklands Museum last weekend looking at the very car, and took some photos to put up as a potential puzzle, only to do a search and discover another puzzler had got there before me!

Anyway, nothing to do with the H.A.R. that I know of, nor a Swallow Doretti.

[faksta]

I have just stumbled upon the HAR Special picture in the web again, that's why I remembered it.
My, what could this be? No single car fits all the criteria above among those I know or could find searching.

By the way, I get it that it is a picture from hillclimb? If you have an info, is it Shelsley Walsh? I don't know hillclimb venues visually.

[Djetset]

As you can see from the poor quality of the image, I took the photo of a photo that was pinned to a display board for a car club at a historic race meeting in England last year.   

I had a long converation with a few guys on the car club stand about this mystery car as two of them were involved with it racing in the early 1960s, and have subsequently found some limited information on the internet to verify our discussions.  I believe the car is competing at the Wiscombe hillclimb in the photograph.

[faksta]

Pity I don't have this then 

[Djetset]

Me too!   From previous posts I've never really given a date as to when this car was built, which seems to be c.1953-54, although the photo was supposedly taken in the very early 1960s.

[faksta]

I'm done for now  I think I'll see it in my dreams tonight, doubt it will introduce itself, though...

[Djetset]

I hope you don't see this one in you dreams Faksta, because it might give you nightmares!   Keep up the good fight..!

[faksta]

Any connection with Chapman - Mercury, which is still being driven at hillclimbs?

(To be honest, they don't look similar enough, but...)

[Djetset]

Not that I know of.

[D-type]

I've found another Bristol- or BMW - engined car. 
The A.W.E.?

[Djetset]

I know the A.W.E. Bristol, and I know that this is not it, sadly!

[Carnut]

Could this be a Halseylec?

[Djetset]

No, not that.

[Carnut]

Is it a Cooper-Bristol?

I thought Cooper had been discounted but you don't seem to have actually answered this question Djetset!
Is it?
I was also going to suggest a Healey...

[Djetset]

Sorry, but neither of those.

[woodinsight]

A wild shot in the dark as I have never seen a photo of this car and don't know if it has a Bristol engine
- BBS of H.M. Barron? (my reasoning is that BBS may stand for Barron Bristol Special or Sports)

[Djetset]

I know the car you mean, although I don't recall seeing a photo of it either.  Sadly though, it is not that one.

[Carnut]

Could this car be a Fairthorpe?

[Djetset]

Thanks for bringing this one back to life, but sadly it is not a Fairthorpe.