By Mike Duff , Car and Driver We told you about Aston's plans for a Zagato-themed two-for-one offer late last year, and now the British...
We told you about Aston's plans for a Zagato-themed two-for-one offer late last year, and now the British sports-car maker has released some renderings to hint at what the forthcoming DBS GT Zagato will look like when it appears next year.
Only 19 of the GT Zagatos will be produced, with each car sold with a what it's calling a Continuation model. That's a version of the original 1960 DB4 Zagato, which was the first time the British sports-car maker collaborated with the Italian carrozzeria of that name. The asking price is the equivalent of just over $7.9 million at current exchange rates.
Although obviously more figurative than literal at present, these sketches suggest that the finished DBS Zagato will play hard on many of the themes of previous Astons named Zagato. The most obvious of these is the "double bubble" roof, which these renderings suggest will be made from unpainted carbon. The design of the round vortex rear lights also seems to have been inspired by those of the last Zagato collaboration, the various Z versions of the Vanquish. Other interesting details include headlights pushed to the outer edge of the fenders, a huge front grille, and a dramatic cutoff to the rear profile. Many details are still to come, but we imagine the finished car will feature the door apertures that the sketches lack, since few Aston owners are likely to put up with the requirement for Dukes of Hazzard–style access through the side windows.
The finished car will use the same base powertrain as the regular DBS Superleggera, which uses a 715-hp version of Aston's twin-turbocharged 5.2-liter V-12, an engine sufficiently potent that its maximum torque output of 663 lb-ft is normally inhibited in lower gears. This may deliver more power in the Zagato-we wait for the official word-but performance gains are as likely to come from savings made on the other side of the power-to-weight scale. Despite its name and a part-carbon structure, the regular DBS isn't especially leggera.
This year, 2019, marks the century of Zagato's foundation, and although buyers of the new DBS Zagato will have to wait until the end of 2020 to get their car, Aston says that they will have the Continuation DB4 Zagato in late 2019. As with Aston's other Continuation models, it will be a perfect re-creation of the original, built by the brand's heritage division. It will be eligible for certain historic motorsports events-the original car was raced with considerable success against the might of Ferrari following its introduction in 1960-but it won't be street legal.
The A-to-Z relationship between English sports-car maker and the Italian body shaper hasn't always resulted in beautiful cars. The pudgy DB7 Zagato was less elegant than the car it was based on, and the 1980s V8 Zagato is widely regarded as one of the oddest-looking Astons of all time. But on the basis of these sketches, the Z-ified DBS looks likely to be one of the winners.
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