A British icon that was designed by Aston Martin in the late 1970’s to show off the capabilities of its new engineering facility is to be restored by CMC, Classic Motor Cars in Bridgnorth.
The Aston Martin Bulldog, styled by William Towns, is a one off concept car that Aston Martin created to prove that it was not only a small company of renowned motoring artisans but that it’s engineering prowess was also world class.
Aston Martin hoped that the car would be capable of over 200 miles per hour making it the fastest production car of its time.
However, testing and development were curtailed with the car tantalisingly close to its design performance having achieved 191 miles per hour in testing at MIRA when Victor Gauntlett became chairman of AML in 1981.
Now CMC is to carry out an 18-month nut and bolt restoration of the famous car after which the owner plans to run the car at over 200 mph and then take it on a World tour.
Nigel Woodward managing Director at Classic Motor cars said: “ We want to put the car back to its original configuration but we may include modern components and technology to improve the cars reliability but overall we want to keep the original engineering architecture and appearance of the car.
Nigel said: “ At the moment we are assuming that nothing on the car works and I am sure that as we take it apart we will find all sorts of challenges. We have a huge history file on the car and are working with the engineers who originally built the car, but there is much more we would like to know.
“Who changed the colour the colour of the car, it was originally white and grey not green, when it was given carburettors etc.”
Nigel added: “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.”
A team of eight people will be working on the restoration of the car, which will be led by Nigel Woodward and workshop Director Tim Griffin.
One of the biggest issues will be parts and if CMC can’t find them they will manufacture them on site.
Nigel added: “It is a great honour for CMC to be chosen to restore such a famous Aston Martin and British icon.”
