Gaydon's McLaren - 1980 Aston Martin Bulldog (Note: there's a note about me at the end!)

(Preliminary note: this post was made for #AstonMartinWednesday to enrich fans of Gaydon’s finest on the brand’s history!)

In 1979, Aston Martin wanted not only to show the world that it still had the ability to compete with the likes of Ferrari and other exotic cars, but also to create a rolling testbed for that epoch’s emerging, advancing technologies. Williams Towns, the man behind the Aston Martin Lagonda, styled this car to look like that of a wedge, being one of the dominant designs at that time. The car was designed to accommodate the engine in the middle, and its five inline pop-up headlights emerged from the center of the car’s front. Initially, the chief engineer of Aston Martin Lagonda, Mike Loasby, took care of its mechanical components, but when he decided to leave and work at DeLorean in 1979, Keith Martin took over the car’s development, working on it for the next three years. The Managing Director, Alan Curtis, supported the car strongly, with him naming the car “Bulldog” after flying a plane known by this name. To the engineers, however, it was known as K.901, which, when considering the first letter and number and the engineering name’s revision to “K-9,” was a reference to Doctor Who’s robot dog.

One of the revolutionary features that was found on this car was a series of blades fitted around the circumference of the Compomotive split-rim alloy wheels that were wrapped in Pirelli P7 tires, with these blades directing cool air to the brakes, a feature that would be see on the Porsche 956. Where the fronts had minuscule 225-section tires, the rears had 345-section tires. Its 5.3 liter V8, which originally had Bosch Fuel Injection, had two Garrett AirResearch turbochargers strapped on to it, which created, without being placed in the car, 700 HP (inside the car, it made approximately 650 HP, with this difference, as assumed, being due to drivetrain losses). With such a low drag coefficient and a sufficient dollop of power, it was able to reach a confirmed top speed of 191 MPH (307.385). Its trapezium shape helped to contribute to its short height at 43 inches (109.22 centimeters) and low drag coefficient, and it’s estimated that its top speed was 237 MPH (381.415), which is comparable to that of the McLaren F1, a car released more than a decade after this. Along with this, the doors rose upwards due to electro-hydraulic machinery in a similar manner to the Mercedes-Benz 300SL and the C111. Along with this, it featured a touchtronic LED interior and dashboard with a reversing T. V. camera, and it was produced at the new external engineering facility at Newport Pagnelli.

It was hoped that a production run of twelve to twenty-five units would be possible, but due to larger issues . After appearing in 1980 at Aston Clinton to the press, the car was sold for 130,000 British Pounds (184,639 U. S. Dollars) to a man in the Middle East, and when it went on sale the last time, it sold for 1,300,000 U. S. Dollars (915,299.58 British Pounds). If the car was released in that time, it would’ve become the fastest car in the world and the fastest car by Aston Martin (the One-77 races up to 220 MPH/354.056 KPH), but only one version, a left-hand drive one, exists to tell this tale and remind us of Britain’s potential.

(Thank you for reading this article! I mentioned that I had something to say, and here it is: I’m going to be dressing up as Mickey Mouse over the weekend, mainly on Sunday! I’m ecstatic over this, and if you guys want to see me in the costume, please say that you do below when commenting below; thank you in advance!)