Odds are you have never heard of the Aston Martin Bulldog, a one-off concept unveiled in 1980, powered by a 5.3-liter V8, Aston claimed the Bulldog would have a top speed of 237 miles per hour. Sadly the car only ever got up to 192 mph before the project was shelved. The speed was impressive but not impressive enough to sell a limited run of up to 25 cars, meaning only one Bulldog was ever built.
Designed by William Towns who was the man behind the 1967 Aston Martin DBS and the Aston Martin Lagonda, the project was code-named DP K901. The wedgy Bulldog was meant to showcase the capabilities of their new engineering facility in Newport Pagnell and be the fastest production car in the world. Unveiled in March 1980 the Bulldog featured gull-wing doors, center-mounted hideaway headlamps, and similar electronic gages and switches as seen in the Lagonda.
Once the project was mothballed, the Bulldog was eventually sold to a buyer in the Middle East for around $150,000 USD where it would be outfitted with mirrors and cameras to be road legal. It would eventually be sold to an American collector, but the car would be seldom seen until its appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2009, it would again reemerge at Aston Martin's 100th-anniversary celebration 2013 before vanishing again. It would see the light of day once more after it was purchased by American entrepreneur Phillip Sarofim two years ago, with a goal of restoring the car back to its former glory.
The car was eventually sent to Classic Motor Cars to undergo a full restoration back to its original specifications, with a few minor adjustments. Unlike most classic one-of-a-kind cars, owner Phillip Sarofim wasn't asking for it to be restored so it could sit in a museum, it was being restored to prove that the car was capable of going over 200 mph. Despite this fact, the car still won the Royal Automobile Club restoration of the year award, and Classic Motor Cars won specialist of the year at the Octane Historic Moring Awards for their work on the Bulldog, but most importantly, on Saturday, November 27 the car hit 162 miles an hour on its first shake-down session. The first time the car has been driven at speed in over 40 years.
Seeing the car run like this for the first time in forty years is a dream come true. I grew up with the car, I had a poster of it on my bedroom wall. I cannot thank the team at CMC enough for the hard work that they have put into this Project. The car will be tested again either this year or at the beginning of next at the Royal Naval Air Station before we go for the 200-mph record that it never did in 1980. The location of that attempt is still being discussed.
Richard Gauntlett, representing the owner of the car Phillip Sarofim
Victor Gauntlett, Richard’s father, was Chairman at Aston Martin when the supercar was planned to be the first production car to exceed 200 mph. The car was privately tested at the Royal Naval Air Station at Yeovilton in Somerset. This was part of a series of Royal Naval activities which has seen the car unveiled at the Hampton Court Concours by two Royal Naval apprentices from the Royal Naval Air Station. The car was showcased on board HMS Prince of Wales, Britain’s latest Aircraft carrier, and the next testing taking place back at RNAS Yeovilton once analysis of Saturday's testing takes place and the conditions are right.
The car will undergo more testing before eventually making its 200mph attempt.
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