You open the flyweight ally door with its Perspex window and savour the aroma of the gently worn Connolly leather interior

A classic car’s desirability is generally determined by three factors: beauty, rarity and sporting provenance. That’s why the Ferrari 250GTO is one of the most coveted: it rates highly on all three counts. The Ferrari 250GT SWB is more numerous than the GTO but it scores high on beauty and competitive achievement. The Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato is also one of the most desirable classic cars. It is beautiful and rare but, in reality, it never did as well as expected on the racetrack.

The DB4GT Zagato competed with some success but never quite made the first team. Its lack of success was down to bad timing. It was too heavy and too old-fashioned to take on first the SWB and then the GTO. Yet invest some time in looking at one and driving it on flowing mountain roads and you cannot fail to be beguiled. It’s one of the most delectable-looking classics of all time and now it’s 50 years old.
 
This one – DB4GT/0178/L – is finished in its original Ferrari-esque red, which is a bit of an irony, and it is in highly original condition. When it was completed on 8 March 1961 it was recorded as being painted in Zagato two-tone, Range Rosso on the upper body and Maja on the bottom. Fortunately it seems the car was not actually delivered in this challenging combination of hues but arrived in plain red. According to the records it was the fourth Zagato built and it was sold as ‘chassis only’ to Zagato, having been road tested and approved for warranty by Des O’Dell at the Aston Martin service department.

After being shipped to the Swiss agent Hubert Patthey, this car was sold to Monsieur Edy Corthesy of Lausanne but, before delivering it, Patthey had the Zagato carefully prepared and presented it at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show on behalf of Aston Martin.
 
Monsieur Corthesy was obviously well-heeled, buying the sporting Zagato for £5470 when the hottest 3.8-litre Jaguar XK150S was priced at a mere £2000. And just two months after Geneva, the car made its competition debut, competing at the Grand Prix of Spa Francorchamps; Corthesy finished, although his classification is not known. Seems he gave the Zag a bit of a go because, three days later, the car was back at the factory undergoing some remedial bodywork, and the engine’s compression ratio was raised.
 
Records show that the Zagato was then sold to student Fridolin Haechler, who later became chief of police in Bern. As well as being Swiss, he had an address in New York so the car was shipped over there with the intention of racing in SCCA events. But that never materialised and the Zagato was sold to Newton Davis in 1962 for 00, then to Chris Murray of Massachusetts, who rebuilt the engine, transmission and brakes and had the car resprayed in red acrylic to match the original colour. Dr Keith Lewin took ownership after that and had the Aston retrimmed in black leather. It was purchased by Jerry Rosenstock of California in 1972 with just 28,000km on the clock. He showed it at various concours events and competed with it at club track events in America.
 
So this car’s history is varied and extremely well documented. Now back in Switzerland once again, Aston Martin DBZ 0178 looks in fine condition and its continuous recorded history and low mileage make it a very desirable example of the mere 19 ever constructed by the Zagato carrozzeria.
 
Parked on the side of a mountain road that snakes through the Alps, the Aston looks superb. Whereas the Superleggera coachwork of the DB4 and DB4GT by Carrozzeria Touring looks restrained and understated, the voluptuous and flowing lines of the Zagato are much more expressive and exciting, with the coachbuilder’s signature double-bubble appearing not on the roof but on the bonnet.
 
Having bought Aston Martin in 1947, David Brown sent his stylist Frank Feeley to Italy to learn from the great carozzerie and, on his return to Aston at Newport Pagnell, Feeley penned the DB2, which went into production in 1950. When Feeley left Aston, Brown and his general manager John Wyer went back to Touring for the styling of the replacement DB4, presented at the 1958 London Motor Show. This was followed in 1959 by the DB4GT, which was shorter than the DB4 by five inches in wheelbase and overall length and also some 85kg lighter. The DOHC 3.7-litre straight-six engine’s power was increased from 240 to 302bhp thanks to head work and three Webers replacing the DB4’s twin SUs. The third model, as you see here, is the DB4GT Zagato, carrying still less weight and with power increased to a claimed 314bhp.
 
Founded in 1919, Zagato was well respected for its lightweight yet strong coachwork that proved itself on Alfa Romeos, Fiats, Lancias and Ferraris when racing as well as on tough road events such as the Mille Miglia. In 1956 a 23-year-old called Ercole Spada joined the company and it was he who designed the beautiful DB4 Zagato. The process began with a chassis being sent from the factory and Spada did a rough sketch of what he thought the car should look like, followed by a number of three-quarter-angle drawings and ending up with a 1:5 wooden scale model and a full-sized technical drawing. With Aston’s approval the first DB4GT Zagato was constructed for the Earls Court Motor Show in 1960.
 
As you will notice from the Aston Martin DB4’s evolution to GT and then to GT Zagato, there was a constant attempt to reduce the cars’ weight as well as increasing their power output, respectively from 1311kg and 240bhp to 1209kg and a claimed 314bhp with the Zagato. Racing had been on the cards since the Zagato’s inception and two cars were built for John Ogier’s famous Essex Racing Stable, registered 1VEV and 2VEV, and they debuted at the 1961 Le Mans 24 Hours race, driven by Jack Fairman and Bernhard Costen, and Australians Lex Davidson and Bib Stillwell. A third car was entered by French distributor Marcel Blondeau for Jean Kerguen and Claud Dewez. The Ogier cars retired within the first three hours due to blown cylinder head gaskets and the French car made it to the 24th hour in ninth place but retired with dramatic timing when it failed to restart during a late pit stop.
 
Both VEV cars and a GT were then entered in the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood with Roy Salvadori, Jim Clark and Innes Ireland as drivers. But Ferrari brought along two SWBs, driven by Stirling Moss and Mike Parkes, who proceeded to pull away from the Zagatos with ease in the three-hour race. It’s interesting to note that, while Salvadori and Clark used 14 tyres for the race, Moss only used ten in the SWB as it was more powerful than the Aston and a considerable 12% lighter.
 
Another three-hour GT race at Monza saw Tony Maggs finishing second in 1VEV behind a Ferrari while, at the 1000km race at Montlhéry, 1VEV (driven by Clark and Ireland) and 2VEV (Maggs and Whitmore) finished fifth and ninth respectively. In 1962 Ferrari unveiled its superb GTO and the Zagato’s racing career was toast.
 
But though it was not an absolute race-winner, the Zagato was driven by some of the greatest drivers of the era at the most evocative race meetings and made a damn good fist of racing even though it was bested by Ferrari, whose cars were lighter, stiffer and faster. Yet those who were there recall these great drivers four-wheel drifting the game old Astons in hot pursuit of Maranello’s finest. The impression remains of the outclassed British underdog doing its best.