Aston Martin Bulldog to get its second chance at 200 mph on July 6

The team restoring the original 1979 Aston Martin Bulldog racecar prototype will be taking it out for a test run on Tuesday, June 6, to try and accomplish what it was originally made for: to reach 322 kilometers per hour, or 200 mph.

The British sports car maker designed the mid-engined supercar with its exotic tapering body in the late ‘70s hoping that it would score the title of the world’s fastest-going production vehicle. However, according to Victor Gauntlett, the head of the company back at the time, the project ended up being too complex and expensive to keep up, so the original plan was scrapped.

In the end, only one Bulldog prototype was made. A while later, Ferrari F40 became the world’s first car capable of 200 mph. The Bulldog fell into obscurity and was only recently rediscovered by car collectors, who located it, bought it out and handed over to Classic Motor Cars for restoration.

The restorer points out that the prototype was slightly modernized for the record-breaking run. The stock chassis and engine were largely retained, but some of the internals were upgraded in order to withstand the load. If the Bulldog does manage to reach the acceleration it was originally designed for, it will be faster than some of the present-day Aston Martin models in production.

The run will be attempted at a former military airfield in Scotland.