Shropshire Star

Bridgnorth firm to restore one of world's rarest cars

With its unique and distinctive angular design, this Aston Martin Bulldog is the only one of its kind in the world.

Published
Tim Griffin, left, and managing director Nigel Woodward with the Aston Martin Bulldog

The British icon that was designed by Aston Martin in the late 1970s to show off the capabilities of its new engineering facility has found its way to Bridgnorth to be restored by Classic Motor Cars (CMC).

Styled by William Towns, it was a one off concept car that Aston Martin created to prove that it was not only a small company of renowned motoring artisans but that its engineering prowess was also world class.

It was hoped the car would be capable of over 200 miles per hour, making it the fastest production car of its time, but on the test track it just fell short clocking 191mph.

The prototype was never put into production, but after its restoration by CMC the undisclosed owner is planning to see if the car will reach more than 200mph before taking it on a world tour.

An eight-strong team at the company, which is based at Stanmore Business Park, will totally strip the Bulldog apart before restoring the car to its original specification.

It will involve about 3,500 hours of work over a period of 18 months.

Nigel Woodward, managing director of CMC, will be leading the restoration, which he has called a "significant project" for the firm.

“We are delighted. It is a great honour for CMC to be chosen to restore such a famous Aston Martin and British icon," Mr Woodward said.

"We were approached by the owner's agent in the UK to ask if we could carry out the restoration.

"I have a history with Aston Martin, I used to work for them in Newport Pagnell.

Overhaul

"It needs a complete restoration.

"We will completely be taking the car apart, right down to the nuts and bolts.

"We will be doing repair work to the chassis and body work, the suspension and brakes need overhauling. We will also need to examine the engine.

"There's been a lot of modifications carried out on the car so we need to remove those.

“We want to put the car back to its original configuration but we may include modern components and technology to improve the cars reliability. Overall we want to keep the original engineering architecture and appearance of the car."

The car has been in storage and the team at CMC are expecting to find all sorts of challenges when it is taken apart.

One of the biggest issues will be parts and if the company can’t find them they will be manufactured on site.

Mr Woodward said: “ At the moment we are assuming that nothing on the car works.

"We have a huge history file on the car and are working with the engineers who originally built the car, but there is much more we would like to know.

“Who changed the colour the colour of the car, it was originally white and grey not green, when it was given carburettors.

"If anybody has any information or period photographs of the car we would love to hear from them so that we can add to the archive material."

Anyone who can help can contact CMC on 01746 765804.