With the astonmartin Bulldog finally having achieved its 200mph goal 45 years since its conception, we look back at the story of the eccentric hypercar - DarrenTurner007
Engineering director Mike Loasby sketched the mechanical layout that would have to be packaged beneath that extraordinary silhouette – a beefy tubular steel chassis supporting the suspension and aluminium bodywork and cradling the familiar 5.3-litre Aston V8, but now of course positioned behind the driver, with the gearbox behind that – and in 1977 work began in a shed at Cranfield airfield, just down the road from Newport Pagnell. It didn’t progress very far.
The gearbox that sat behind was a ZF five-speed manual, similar to the one used by De Tomaso for the Pantera, while suspension was by double wishbones at the front and Aston’s traditional de Dion axle at the rear, chiefly because it took up less space. Packaging was certainly an issue. The finished car was vast: 15ft 6in long, well over 6ft wide and just 3ft 7in tall – substantially longer, wider and lower than a contemporary Ferrari Boxer.
‘When I had my turn again I was lapping at about 135 when there was a big bang and a nose panel just flew off. We didn’t expect to be going that fast so quickly. But it was brilliant. Straight away it felt good.’Months of testing, refining and calibrating followed. Wind tunnel sessions revealed that at a simulated 200mph there was around 450lb of lift at the rear; the addition of a crude-looking but undeniably functional lip reduced it to practically zero.
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