This was Aston’s amazing top speed concept from 1980, a car that would hit 200 miles per hour, and it’s coming back.
The Aston Martin Bulldog, styled by William Towns, is a British, one-off concept vehicle produced by Aston Martin in 1979. The code name for the project was DP K9.01, named after a Doctor Who character. Initially, a production run of 15–25 cars was planned but the project was deemed too costly and only one was built.
The Bulldog was designed to show off the capabilities of Aston Martin’s new engineering facility in Newport Pagnell, as well as to chase after the title of fastest production car in the world. The car was officially launched on 27 March 1980 at the Bell Hotel at Aston Clinton. Although the car was built in the UK, it is left-hand-drive.
The company sold the car to a Middle Eastern collector in 1982, while Gauntlett engineered a sales recovery and Aston Martin’s return to the James Bond franchise. Now, 37 years later, Classic Motor Cars (CMC) in Bridgnorth, wants to show off its new engineering facility and prowess, and it intends to do so with the Bulldog.
The Bulldog’s ultra-wedge shape, stretched over 186 inches and just 43 inches high, could not have come from any other decade. A panel on the front lowered to reveal five square headlights, while giant gull-wing doors doubled the car’s height when opened. The interior, matching the Towns-designed Lagonda Series 2, showed off LED lights, buttons and touchscreens.
The Bulldog has a 5.3-liter V8 engine under the hood running with two Garrett turbochargers to produce 600 horsepower (447 kilowatts). During the restoration, CMC will work in cooperation with some of the original engineers of the car and if the team can’t find some of the missing parts, it will manufacture them on site.
Some of you can also join the restoration. Nigel Woodward (managing director at Classic Motor cars) says that “if anybody has any information or period photographs of the car we would love to hear from them so that we can add to the archive material.”
If the Bulldog had achieved its target, it would have been the fastest production car in the world. The plan was to build up to 25 units for sale, which would pay for development costs said to exceed 1 million pounds at the time.
