Building the Bulldog

‘Time for some changes in the department.’ So said Steve Coughlin, then Aston Martin engineering manager. ‘I want you to be chief executive of the Bulldog project and finish it.’ It was March 27, 1979. AML chairman Alan Curtis had decided that the Bulldog would be a showpiece for Aston Martin skills to attract future specialist project work, and now it was all systems go.

The project had been put on hold after initial work by Mike Loasby (see previous issue). Now, following Mike’s departure, and to see it to completion, I was to have my own workshop within the factory with eight staff – two engineers, two draughtsmen, two sheet-metal workers and two fitters.

Steve Hallam was in the team already and had the existing technical information; he would be development engineer with me pitching in, and we recruited Mike Duff as the sole design engineer/draughtsman. The fitters – skilled