The British Bulldog is back! Son of Aston Martin chairman who sold the firm’s only 237mph supercar to Middle East buyer brings it home to make it roar again
- The futuristic supercar was produced in 1979 and was the only one ever built
- Facing financial difficulty, Aston Martin were forced to sell it to collector in 1984
- Now it has been traced by son of former company boss who is now restoring it
The son of former Aston Martin boss Victor Gauntlett has tracked down the iconic Bulldog supercar more than 30 years after his father sold it to a Middle Eastern buyer for £130,000.
Richard Gauntlett says he was ‘obsessed’ with the car as a child when his father was running the car manufacturing company in the 1980s.
The Aston Martin Bulldog was a one-off supercar concept produced in 1979 in an effort to show off the capabilities of the company’s new engineering facility in Milton Keynes.
Initially a production run of 15 to 25 cars was planned but the project was deemed too expensive by Victor Gauntlett and only one was ever built.
Richard Gauntlett, son of former Aston Martin boss Victor Gauntlett, has tracked down the iconic Bulldog supercar more than 30 years after his father sold it to a collector to raise money for the company and will now work with experts to restore the car to its former glory
The car, designed by William Towns, was produced in 1979 and was the only one ever built
The car once reached speeds of 192mph but the firm’s experts claimed it could reach 237mph
Now his son Richard has tracked down the vehicle and is heading up a project to restore it.
Speaking to the BBC, Richard described the car as a ‘mythical creature’ and said no one has seen it run in at least 30 years.
He added: ‘There’s a great deal of personal meaning to this because I was obsessed with the car as a child.’
The vehicle was sold by Richard’s father to a middle eastern buyer in 1984 to help raise cash for the then-struggling company.
It is believed the vehicle has spent the last 30 years in different storage units around the world including spending some time in the United States.
And although Richard says it kept turning up in ‘different storage units’ nobody had seen the car running since it had been sold.
Now it has been located in the Far East and was bought by an American Bulldog fan before it was transported to Shropshire where it will be restored by a team of experts at the Classic Motor Cars company headed by Richard.
Victor Gauntlett axed plans to build more of the supercars because it would be too expensive
The car was traced to the Far East and has been bought by an American fan for restoration
The car’s futuristic design with gullwing doors and wedge shaped body was popular with fans
Experts estimate the restoration project, in Shropshire, will take up to a year to be completed
The two-door coupe style car broke records when it reached 192mph in 1979 with its sleek futuristic design and Aston Martin 5.3-litre V8 engine but Aston Martin’s experts claimed it was capable of going as fast as 237mph.
The vehicle itself was was 15ft 6in long and just 43in tall, with a pair of electro-hydraulically operated gullwing doors.
Inside, the supercar’s interior was upholstered in leather and used multiple LED buttons.
The team hope to restore the car to its former glory and, according to the Classic Motor Company, want to see it pass the 200mph mark as it was originally designed to do.
Experts estimate the project will take about a year to complete.