The design featured a longitudinal mounted engine set behind the rear offside wheels, rather than the more typical transverse layout.

The prototypes had 80-seat bodies by Eastern Coach Works (ECW) and entered service with Central SMT and Bristol Omnibus Company.

[6] Continued reliability issues resulted in 1973 in the exchange, on a one-for-one basis, of 91 Bristol VRTs from Central SMT, Eastern Scottish and Western SMT for front-engined Bristol Lodekka FLF6Gs from the National Bus Company, a majority of these being sent from Eastern Counties.

[7] A revision of the vehicle, the Series 2, was introduced in 1970, with changes including a replacement of the single-piece wrap-around engine compartment door with a 3 piece version with a lift up rear section and swing out sides.

The later Bristol VRs remained in service with many independent bus operators and some major bus companies across the United Kingdom until the late 2000s: East Yorkshire Motor Services, having amassed a total of 150 new and second-hand VRs, withdrew their last closed top examples in 2004;[8] Wilts & Dorset withdrew their last examples in 2007, with some continuing operating until 2009 with subsidiary Damory Coaches,[citation needed] and First Devon & Cornwall withdrew their last closed top VRs in December 2006.

The chassis types are as follows: Engines: Like most Bristol buses, most VRs were bodied by Eastern Coach Works.

However, some were bodied by Alexander, East Lancs, Metro Cammell Weymann, Northern Counties and Willowbrook of Loughborough.

Notable users of the VR outside of the National Bus Company (NBC) included the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, who took 200 on MCW bodies in 1970s and Liverpool Corporation Transport/Merseyside Transport, who together took approximately 120 in total all on East Lancs bodies in separate batches in the late 1960s and mid 1970s.