One-off Aston Martin Bulldog Concept undergoes restoration

By: Alex Affat, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 08.05.2020

The one-off 70s concept car has unfinished business to attend to

In February just weeks before the world was shut down, UK-based classic car specialists Classic Motor Cars began restoring one of the world’s rarest cars; the one-off Aston Martin Bulldog concept car.

The Bulldog, designed by William Towns, was born of the late 1970s, when Aston Martin was still a relatively low-volume bespoke car maker. The angular concept car was intended to show off the marque’s engineering prowess as well as their new engineering facility.

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Originally a production run of 15-25 cars was planned, however when Victor Gauntlett took his seat as Chairman of the company in 1981, he deemed the exercise too expensive and shelved the project with only one car completed. The sole Bulldog was first sold to a Middle Eastern collector in 1984.

A mid-mounted 5.3lt takes pride of place, force-fed by twin Garrett turbochargers yielding a 447kW (engine testing saw peak power reach 522kW).

Aston Martin believed the car to be capable of over 200 miles per hour (322km/h), but that was never to be – posting a top speed of 192 miles per hour in 1979, before budgetary constraints put an end to top speed testing. Still, it was good enough to cement the car as the world’s fastest road car until Porsche’s 959 posted 198 miles in 1986.

The Bulldog’s current owner commissioned CMC to perform a full nut-and-bolt restoration, after which they plan to see the car finally reach 200 miles per hour before taking the car on a world tour.

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