This gorgeous car with an amazing history is currently owned by Jack Perkins in California, but has travelled the globe extensively throughout its lifetime. Jack tells the history of the car as follows:

"Rod Nuckey was a young English driver whose family owned the Warrior Tap & Die Company in Hertfordshire. In 1953 he acquired a Cooper-Bristol Formula 2 Mark II, chassis CB Mk2 3/53. Nuckey won several races during 1953, in the Cooper racing for Ecurie Richmond. However at the final Snetterton meeting of the year the car was seriously crashed, ruining the chassis. The engine and transmission were removed from the Cooper and used in a new car to be run in sports car races.

The new car was known as the Warrior-Bristol. Its designer, Bernard “Bernie” Roger, was a talented 35 year old engineer who designed and built a number of one off specials in the 1950's. The Warrior is believed to be his first from the ground up. Roger had spent his early years apprenticed with Alta Car and Engineering Company. He later became chief mechanic for Mike Hawthorn in 1952 and Ecurie Richmond in 1953 working primarily on Cooper MkI and MkII formula 2 cars. In 1953 he designed and built the first Cooper-Bristol sports car, utilizing the Alan Brown Cooper Mk I chassis with a Ferrari Barchetta style body by Wakefield’s of Byfleet. It had a de-dion suspension and preceded Cooper’s own prototype Cooper-Bristol sport car by several months. Roger was later associated with Francis Beart, constructing the Beart-Roger sports racer in 1956. Later Roger was connected with the design of the Peerless GT and the ill-fated Gordon-Keeble. [He came back to W&P in the early sixties for bodywork input into the Gordon-Keeble project, in which they were heavily involved - Registrar]

As Rod Nuckey wanted a sports racer, Bernie Roger obliged by creating the Warrior-Bristol with an entirely new chassis, of the tube frame Superlegerra type. It was similar in many respects to the H-frame tube chassis built by John Tojeiro in 1953 for Cliff Davis. The Tojeiro chassis eventually became the basis for the A.C. Ace. However the Roger design utilized a de-dion rear suspension with torsion bars, a lighter tube frame and Cooper 4-lug wheels. It was bodied by Williams and Pritchard of North London who also developed similar bodies for the Tony Crook-Jack Walton ex-Cooper MkII and the Bristol 450 sports racers. Originally the front suspension utilized a transverse leaf spring. However it was soon changed to torsion bars. The head faring and wrap around screen were added in 1955. The car was registered SAR 336.

Before Jack's ownership, when the car arrived in Australia in the late sevenies, it was in a very sorry state by the time it reached Ian Broughton's ownership and he is responsible for bringing the car back to life. Brett, his son, says:

"I enjoyed your article on the rebodied BMW and the early days of Williams and Pritchard – they were certainly top class panel men. You may be interested to know that my father (Ian Boughton) restored the W&P bodied “Warrior Bristol” in the early 1980’s. When my father first purchased the car it was fitted with a 2.4L jag motor, tilt front bonnet and a Kamm type back (The result of a prang at the infamous Singapore “Gap” Hillclimb in the 60’s). I have fond memories of driving the Warrior on the track after my father refitted a Bristol donk and recreated original body profiles. For the record, the car had a very interesting early life as it was fashioned out of a MK2 Cooper Bristol wreck  (ex Nuckey – Warrior Tap & Die Company) by well known race mechanic Bernie Rogers. See Doug Nye’s book on Coopers if you are interested. The gorgeous shell is a credit to Williams and Pritchard. It is good to see the old war horse still going strong in the States."

the Warrior at Gap Hillclimb in Singapore, 1969

"Here is a snap of the Jaguar engined Warrior at the Gap Hillclimb in Singapore in the late 60s (courtesy of family friend, ex Singaporean and old car enthusiast, Roger Mathews). You will note that the car sports a tilt front bonnet, prominent head lights and a somewhat reduced air intake (no nacelle!). This image doesn't show the travesty committed to the back end ie it had been Kamm backed (through laziness I suspect) as a result of damage sustained from an off at a previous outing at the Gap Hillclimb. In short, the car's original beauty is barely recognisable! Re the Warrior's purported "special" Jaguar engine - unfortunately, it's specs were rather pedestrian ie It ran 9:1 factory pistons, std cams, wet sump, std porting etc. It did however have a nicely fabricated inlet manifold which held a triplet of 45mm Weber carbs and a six branch exhaust system. The original close ratio Bristol gearbox was (fortunately) still attached. It would have been nice to put a BS4 donk back into the car, but the best my old man could do in 1980 (who is a privateer of modest means) was to reprofile the body and reinstall a Bristol 85 motor running 9:1 pistons and a 125bhp 40/80 sports cam."

Australian automotive author Bob Campbell also wrote a very intersting article about the Warrior Bristol for Australian publication "Vintage Motorsport" in March / April 2005, and his very generous input on this car has been invaluable. We also hope to have some images from his collection in due course.