1980 Aston Martin Bulldog Concept

In the 1970s, Aston Martin decided to build its first hypercar ever. It was time for it. Other automakers were making wild wedge-shaped cars, and Aston wanted a hand in the mix. So, the company came together and designed one of the wildest wedge hypercars of the decade: the Aston Martin Bulldog. 

The Bulldog was styled by William Towns. He told EVO’s sister publication Vantage: “All we had was a scale clay model, an incomplete tubular steel chassis, an engine and gearbox, a few unfinished panels and a collection of sketches …” From that, he and the rest of the Aston Martin team managed to make one of the wildest cars of the 70s.

The car ended up being 15 and a half feet long, six feet wide, and about three and a half feet long. The car also had bladed wheels, disc brakes, and gullwing doors. The engine was a V8 that was unique to the Bulldog. The transmission was a five-speed ZF manual. The target top speed was 237 mph, but the car was able to 192 mph at MIRA, and there were plans to take it to the Ehra-Lessien test track but that never happened.

At one point the Sultan of Oman was planning to buy the car, but when Russia invaded Afghanistan, he pulled out. From there, any hopes of this car becoming a production machine evaporated. Then it took a PR role and largely faded to obscurity. With Aston working on new supercars, EVO decided to take a closer look. You can check out the publication’s full article via the link by clicking here.