Yahoo Sports The Fully Restored 1979 Aston Martin Bulldog Will Attempt to Hit 200 MPH Next Week
The Aston Martin Bulldog wasn’t restored just so it could be put on display.
Classic Motor Cars has announced plans to attempt a 200-mph run with the angular supercar next week, according to Road & Track. Why 200 mph? Because that was the mark the outlandish one-off was supposed to be able to beat when it was first built in 1979.
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The Bulldog just might be the biggest curio in Aston Martin history. The wedge-shaped coupe, which was designed by William Towns, was the British marque’s attempt to develop and build the world’s fastest car. When it was unveiled in 1980, the automaker claimed it would be the first car to top 200 mph. The car never managed to top 192 mph, though. This was because Aston Martin pulled the plug on the project much earlier than expected because of its sky-high price. The brand had intended to build a run of 10 to 15 Bulldogs, but the concept ended up being the only example that ever rolled off the line.
Classic Motor Cars, which has spent 7,000 hours restoring the Bulldog since 2021, thinks it can help the supercar finally reach its full potential, though. That’s why the U.K.-based shop will attempt to finally push the vehicle to 200 mph on Tuesday, June 6, at Machrihanish Airfield in Scotland. In recent testing, Classic Motor Cars was able to reach break 170 mph in the 44-year-old vehicle.
Development continues to help the Bulldog finally reach 200 mph. The retrofuturistic supercar looks identical to how it looked at the dawn of the 1980s, but its power train has been reworked some. The Bulldog’s twin-turbo 5.3-liter V-8 has been rebuilt and equipped with a modern fuel injection system, while its five-speed manual gearbox has been strengthened. There’s hope that the modification will help push output from 600 to 650 horses.
The restored Bulldog was feted at last year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, but we have a feeling breaking 200 mph is the reward that Classic Motor Cars has really been working toward all along.
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