Aston Martin Bulldog’s 40 Year Wait For 200mph

Aston Martin Bulldog, If At First You Don’t Succeed…

It’s quite rare that a supercar, originally conceived more than 40 years ago during the Queen’s Jubilee year of 1977, would suddenly find itself thrust into the limelight of the modern car world but the wonderfully retro 1970s Aston Martin Bulldog which was visually mastered by William Towns, has somehow managed to do that.  

The Aston Martin Bulldog fits into what I would suggest is our new ability to deconstruct the looks of the 1970s and reconstruct them into worthwhile works of art – cars that were deemed to be ugly and highly dismissive not so very long ago are being given a new lease of life.

What the Aston Martin Bulldog has done here is to achieve something it was incapable of doing 40 years ago; it’s the over-200mph-kudos that Aston Martin had claimed the Bulldog to be capable of as far back as in 1979.

In fact, Aston claimed the car could achieve 237mph – but in an official timing at the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA), it only managed (a quite possibly very humbling) 191mph.

So: what on earth has happened to the Aston Martin Bulldog over the past 40-odd years to get it to where it is today?

Aston Martin Bulldog Supercar ‘On Ice’ After Failed 200mph Pledge

The gullwing-doored Bulldog was somewhat unfortunately named after an aircraft owned by the Managing Director of Aston Martin, Alan Curtis; unfortunate, as even in the 1970s there were people ready to mock the look of the seventies – we went from a bulldog that looked rather incapable of achieving any land-speed record to the car being nicknamed K9; and if you are old enough to remember the motorised dog from Dr Who, then you too might be thinking that this could have all been avoided by giving the Bulldog a rather more in-your-face colour – or not naming it after a dog. 

Aside from being called K9 and the failed attempt at 200mph, Aston Martin had originally intended to build around 15 to 25 of the vehicles, but delays and the improbable expense of such an exercise eventually put the idea on ice.

Eventually, Aston Martin cut their losses and sold the Bulldog to a collector based in the Middle East for £130,000 who then moved it on to a collector in the USA.

As our general perception of what we saw as anything 1970s to be unattractive waned, the Bulldog was seen again at 2009’s Goodwood Festival of Speed and then again during Aston’s 100th anniversary year in 2013.

Classic Motor Cars Ltd Rise To Bulldog 200mph Challenge

And so it began; this renewed interest in the Bulldog saw that a full and dedicated ground-up restoration was to be performed by Classic Motor Cars Ltd under the management of Richard Gauntlett, with the intention of finally achieving that elusive 200mph record.

Of course, Classic Motors were only going to perform a perfectly excellent restoration on the Bulldog – and as an incentive, in all the 7,000 hours of carefully re-crafting the car, the design team at Classic Motors knew that way back in 1979 Aston had already claimed that the car could achieve well over 200mph…

Le Mans 24-Hour Champion Drives Bulldog To Success

Three-times Le Mans 24-Hour winner Darren Turner was the deserved driver of the Bulldog at Machrihanish in Campbeltown in Scotland, where the conditions were described on the 6th June as near perfect. Darren said later that the Bulldog had fulfilled its promise.

The Bulldog’s new owner Phillip Sarofim described the moment as one where we are ‘making dreams come true’ and Richard Gauntlett, who is the son of former Aston Martin owner Victor Gauntlett, described the 200mph event as a fine achievement and heartwarming.

A great moment: Let’s honestly hope there are more classics from that era waiting to be reborn.

Images: classic-motor-cars.co.uk, @astonmartinheritagetrustofficial (Facebook)