Bristol Cars put into bankruptcy protection

U.K. carmaker Bristol Cars was placed into administration on Thursday, the British equivalent of bankruptcy.

Officials now running the company said several people were laid off but that it was keeping the sales and service operations open.

Bristol sold its hand-built cars directly to the pubic, without a dealer network. It maintained one showroom in London, and it rarely released production totals.

Its current lineup includes the flagship Fighter T, which is powered by a twin-turbo Chrysler V10 that was claimed to crank out 1,012 hp and 1,036 lb-ft of torque. Other models in the lineup are the Series 6 and the Blenheim.

The company was founded in 1945 as an outgrowth of the Bristol Aeroplane Co. Early cars were based on pre-World War II BMW designs, which company officials brought back from Munich just after the war ended.

The company had a series of owners. The last, Toby Silverton, bought the company in 2001.

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