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1980 Aston Martin Bulldog concept will reattempt to break the 200-mph barrier

Aston Martin's 1980 Bulldog concept will receive a second chance to break the 200-mph barrier after it emerges from a complete, 18-month restoration. It was developed with all-out speed in mind — the British company had hoped the coupe would become the fastest car in the world, but it missed its target before getting shelved. Had things gone as planned, car-crazed kids in the 1980s would have grown up with a picture of the Bulldog on their bedroom wall. Aston Martin wanted to hoist itself up the exotic car pecking order by building the fastest car in the world, though it didn't envision more than a limited production run of 15 to 25 cars. Penned by William Towns, who also drew the Lagonda, the Bulldog looked like nothing else on the road (let alone in the Aston Range) due in part to its five center-mounted lights, and it broke with tradition by adopting a mid-mounted engine. Engineers floated a top speed of 237 mph, according to The Drive, but the Bulldog ran out of breath at 191 mph. Victor Gauntlett axed the project shortly after taking the top job at Aston Martin in 1981 because the numbers didn't add up; the firm wasn't in a position to chase speed records. Now, 40 years later, it's almost time to try again. Classic Motor Cars began the lengthy process of restoring the Bulldog on behalf of a private owner in 2020, and it enlisted the help of Aston Martin factory driver Darren Turner to see if it can break the 200-mph barrier once it's back in one piece. Richard Gauntlett, the son of the company's former boss, is overseeing the project. We don't know precisely when or where the speed run will take place, but Classic Motor Cars aims to have the Bulldog running by the end of 2021. In a statement, it said that the car is "well on the way to being restored." Restoring any exotic car from the early 1980s is a meticulous, expensive, and time-consuming process, and bringing a one-off concept car back to life increases the number of challenges exponentially. Classic Motor Cars can't order parts from Aston Martin, for example, and it's not able to study another example to find out how a specific panel is welded. It helps that the Bulldog hasn't been significantly modified over the past four decades, though some parts (like the door mirrors) were added later, and that it was complete when it arrived at the shop. Power for the Bulldog comes from a 5.3-liter V8 that's twin-turbocharged to 600 horsepower, figures that are still respectable in 2021.

Giving this '67 Aston DB6 the James Bond treatment only required drilling one hole

Paul is a Brit living in Southern California and still connected to his native land by, among other things, being a collector of all things James Bond. That led to him buying a 1967 Aston Martin DB6, having lusted after a DB-series car since he was nine, and fitting it with every "accoutrement" from James Bond's 1964 DB5 in Goldfinger and Thunderball. Getting features like the slicer wheel caps, console-activated oil slicks, blast shield and radar screen fitted required Paul to find his own Q-Branch director, this one named Brian Uiga, a gent who had done the same with his BMW 7 Series. As for what it took, Paul said, "We got together and planned the project and set a budget, and... the plan didn't work and the budget was toast." Still, they got it done - including the ejector seat - and it only required drilling one hole. You can see the result in the video below.

Check out Aston Martin's zero-emissions AMR-SB race car

In the above video, Aston Martin reveals its AMR-SB race car. According to the chassis designer, it came at a time that was fairly busy, especially following the company's Le Mans class victory. But they saw it through, and the result is an amazingly light, zero-emissions race car. Aston was able to do this by powering it with the constantly present resource of gravity. Yes, it's a soapbox derby car. We appreciate car companies that have a sense of humor, and that's clearly what Aston demonstrates with this professional intro video for its soapbox racer. The company built it for the Red Bull Soapbox race in England, and it looks just like one of Aston Martin's Vantage GTE Le Mans racers, down to the wing on the back. That wing didn't seem to be attached quite as well as those on the real cars, since it disappears after one of the jumps. The car gets going more quickly than you might expect, too, as the video shows it hitting over 30 mph at a certain point. Check out the fun in the video above. You can also see the whole ride down from the driver's view in the video below. Related Video: