Aston Martin’s historic partnership with Milanese design house Zagato has been a consistent fixture of its heritage since 1961, when Zagato was first commissioned to design and hand-build a new, lightweight body for Aston’s competition DB4 GT. The partnership between the two companies is still a hallmark of the two brands, but when it comes to rarity, this specific V12 Vantage Zagato that’s up for sale is even more special.
As one of the two pre-production V12 Vantage Zagatos, this specific example differs from standard models with its hand-beaten aluminium body – a manufacturing technique that is both intensely time-consuming and technical, not to mention a direct reference to the construction method of that first DB4 GT Zagato of 1961. Full production models ditched the use of aluminium in favour of carbonfibre, which is both lighter and easier to manufacture than beaten aluminium at this production scale.
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Initially built by Aston Martin as a show car, this right-hand-drive prototype has since been refurbished by the owner who bought the car directly from Aston Martin in 2016, with a re-trimmed interior and Aston Martin Racing Green paintwork replacing the original Titanium Grey.
This Zagato’s mechanical package is unchanged from the production car, featuring a 5.9-litre atmospheric V12 engine, six-speed manual transmission and rear-wheel drive, but the AM11 V12 unit in use is said to produce more than the 510bhp of factory specification models thanks to some fettling done during a mechanical restoration.
A total of 64 carbon-bodied cars were built, but if exclusivity is of the utmost importance, owning one of just two aluminium-bodied cars could make it the ultimate contemporary Zagato collector’s car.
