45 years after the Aston Martin Bulldog was born it finally hit 200mph, here’s how

A 1979 Aston Martin Bulldog finally reached 200 mph (322 km/h).

This wouldn’t be ground-breaking news, per se, were it not for the fact that the Bulldog was designed precisely for that all those years ago, but it always came short.

Now, 45 years later, it finally fulfilled its original mission.

Better late than never.

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The Bulldog was launched in 1979 with an ambitious goal.

The idea was to reach 200 mph which, back then, wasn’t business as usual in the automotive industry.

A failed mission

Aston built the Bulldog with an impossible target in mind.

Back then, the company wanted to reach 237 mph.

They quickly realized it was never going to happen, so they revised their plan and moved the goalpost to 200 mph.

But that still wasn’t enough, as the best it could do was 191 mph (307 km/h), and Aston wasn’t doing well at all, financially, so they simply gave up.

A 45-year-old collector’s item

The UK company in charge of the restoration, Classic Motor Cars Unlimited, borrowed the only Bulldog in existence from the American collector who owns it.

The car was in good condition, but not perfect, and it needed some work.

It took them a while, ‘thousands of hours’ in their own words, but they finally did it.

In 2023, after restoring the car, they reached 205.4 mph, or 330.5 km/h.

In part, the fact that this car had to be restored is the reason why they finally managed to set the record.

Because so many of the original components were unavailable, they had to ‘make do’ with modern ones which, 45 years later, are, well, better.

An unusual Aston

The Bulldog doesn’t look like any other Aston in the world.

It looks like a wild blend of a Cybertruck and the DeLorean.

It was characterized by the iconic ‘wedge’ shape that was pretty much omnipresent in the 1970s and 1980s, and it has gullwing doors – check out the Honda HP-X, for example

The engine, located right behind the seats, is a 5.3-liter V8 with two turbochargers.

For a car built in the 1970s, it is quite heavy, tipping the scales at over 1,700 kg.

It puts out 600 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque and, finally, we can say it has a top speed north of 200 mph.