A Past with a Future

Photos by Aston Martin
Written by Nicolas Bates

Car manufacturer Aston Martin needs little introduction, seeing as how it has been building cars for nearly 100 years now. And as long as there are endurance races, Aston Martin will most likely have a car to run those races—but what about street legal cars? In order for companies such as Aston Martin to stay in business they need to be on the cutting edge of technology and style in order to produce new vehicles available for the public—the extremely rich public—to purchase. This past May, Aston Martin released the concept version of the V12 Zagato at the Villa D’Este Concours show in Italy, much to the delight of onlookers. Subsequently, Aston Martin arrived to the Frankfurt auto show with a production version of the Zagato—almost a splitting image of the concept version—and two race versions of the Zagato: “Zig and Zag.” The Zagato is said to have a highly limited run at 150 units and is surely bound to turn heads purely on an aesthetic basis.

The Zagato, named after the Zagato coachbuilders that handcraft the car’s aluminum bodywork, is modeled after the Vantage V12. Although that is apparent, even at first glance, the Zagato “pops” much more. The Zagato is wider, lower, instantly sending the race-car-gone-street-legal message straight to the eyes and brain. Suffice it to say, the Zagato can be described as an Aston Martin Vantage V12 mated to a Nissan 370Z. The results are, dare I say, sexy in the least. The 19” wheels set the car off even more with their very unique irregular hexagon-like shape. Since the wheel wells site right atop the wheels and tires, it really does appear that this was a “de-raced” racecar making an attempt at looking street legal.

The Zagato’s powerplant is that which propels the Vantage V12: Aston Martin’s alloy 6-liter 48-valve quad overhead cam V12. With this, the Zagato is rated at 510 bhp and 420 ft-lb. of torque at nearly 5,800 rpm. Aston Martin has not released a weight for the Zagato; however, with its aluminum and carbon fiber body, one would have to assume it is substantially lighter than it would look. Regardless, Aston Martin declares the Zagato will do 0-62 mph in 4.2 seconds and has a top speed of 190 mph. A highly advanced rear mid-mounted, six-speed manual transmission with a carbon fiber shaft is used to transfer power from the V12 to the ground and a limited slip differential makes sure there is no annoying tire slippage while mashing the pedal into the floorboards. The suspension will consist of independent double wishbones with fully adjustable Multimatic DSSV dampers at all four corners. Since stopping power is serious issue with a beast like this, the Zagato is equipped with ventilated floating grooved discs with 6 piston calipers in the front and ventilated floating grooved discs with 4 piston calipers in the rear. Basically, when you model a street legal car after a racecar, you can’t loose. Because of this, the Zagato has “win” written all over it.

Aston Martin has continually manufactured vehicles of high power and high luxury, but with the Zagato, one is that much closer to the power and engineering of Aston Martin’s race vehicles. And with the limited run (150 production cars) and the hand rolled aluminum body, the Zagato is guaranteed to be an extremely coveted collector car in the years to come. The V12 Zagato: Another finely crafted vehicle from the world renowned auto maker, Aston Martin.

For more info go to:
AstonMartin.com