It’s late summer 1960 and Gianni Zagato’s workshop hums to the familiar sound of thin-gauge aluminium sheet being wheeled and beaten into wonderful shapes by his skilled team of artisans. A deal has been signed with a new and prestigious client – David Brown, owner of Aston Martin – to build a series of special DB4GTs to compete with Ferrari’s 250GT SWB on road and track, and work is in full-swing to deliver the lighter and more aerodynamic Aston he desires.

The plan is for Aston Martin to reveal the DB4GT Zagato at the London Motor Show in October the same year. Gianni Zagato entrusts the design to Ercole Spada, a bright but inexperienced member of his design team. It’s a brave yet ultimately inspired decision for, though just 23 years old, Spada is a genius, and it takes him less than a week to create a sumptuous shape that shrink-wraps the DB4GT’s underpinnings with pared-back simplicity and perfect proportions.

Fast-forward to spring 2011 and another Aston Martin Zagato project is well underway. The intervening half-century has seen the DB4GT Zagato attain almost mythical status, its beauty, rarity and extraordinary value (currently circa £5 million) outweighing the inconvenient truth that it failed to achieve the motor sport or showroom success David Brown had hoped for. Still, there’s no doubt when it comes to special Astons that anything bearing the dagger-like ‘Z’ logo has magical appeal. With a 50th birthday to celebrate, the timing couldn’t have been better to create a fitting tribute.

With Aston Martin owned by a Middle Eastern investment group and Zagato part of Russian billionaire Vladimir Antonov’s burgeoning Coventry-based CPP Global Holdings group, the automotive landscape has changed out of all recognition since the 1960s, but it’s reassuring to see that the art of creating an Aston Martin Zagato remains largely unchanged.

Much like its illustrious forebear, the new Zagato is based upon an existing high-performance Aston Martin model: the potent, pocket-sized V12 Vantage. Whereas the styling and fabrication of the DB4GT Zagato’s bodywork were wholly entrusted to the Italians, the V12 Zagato has been a more collaborative effort. Initial discussions between Zagato and Aston’s design teams thrashed out the broad themes, then once both parties were comfortable with their shared vision, Aston Martin’s designers – under the supervision of director of design Marek Reichman – took control of the styling.

With the design completed, fabrication of the V12 Zagato’s panels – initially enough to build two cars – has been expertly handled by CPP (Coventry Prototype Panels). In a scene redolent of Zagato’s Milanese workshop back in the summer of 1960, CPP’s expert panel-beaters take cold, flat sheets of aluminium and create magnificent three-dimensional curves using nothing more than an English wheel, snips, hammers, dollies and files. Only the rash of Health & Safety at Work notices on the walls and a distinct deterioration in the quality of the coffee betray the date and geographical location.

Forming those precious panels is a painstaking and hugely skilled process. The front wings alone each comprise seven separate pieces of aluminium, which are shaped, joined and hand-finished to create one flowing form. Likewise the undulating roof panel is made from five individual pieces welded and smoothed together to make a seamless and organic shape. This time-honoured craftsmanship is an elemental link to Aston’s original Zagato GT and a sign of Aston Martin’s commitment to follow the sensational One-77 supercar with another super-exclusive low-volume model.

For a marque universally praised for the beauty of its cars, yet simultaneously criticised for not having sufficient visual differentiation between models, the V12 Zagato is a spectacular, aggressive and in parts controversial design. Not surprisingly it takes inspiration from the DB4, most obviously the broad radiator grille and curvaceous rear haunches, but it also features other Zagato hallmarks such as the trademark ‘double-bubble’ roof. Modern additions such as the deep front splitter and rear diffuser are functional and necessary elements of a car that will trouble 200mph.

Just as in 1960, Aston Martin chose a prestigious event to unveil the V12 Zagato: the Villa d’Este concours on the shores of Lake Como in Italy (see pages 26-28). Entered into the Concept Cars and Prototypes category, the V12 Zagato beat stiff opposition from ten international entries, including Jim Glickenhaus’s one-off Ferrari P4/5 racer, a Ferrari 599 Superamerica, BMW’s 328 Concept and Audi’s Quattro Concept, to take the prize.
Just three days after its historic debut, the V12 Zagato is back at Aston Martin’s Gaydon HQ for an appointment with Octane. Away from the crowds and manicured lawns of Villa d’Este it looks even more compelling: a riot of swoops, curves, scalloped recesses and hungry vents, all in a resplendent shade of red.
A one-to-one with the hottest car in the world is enough for most magazines, but we believe the only thing better than one Aston

Martin Zagato is two Aston Martin Zagatos, which is why we’ve invited a frankly mouthwatering DB4GT Zagato along to the party. If there’s a heaven, it can’t be too dissimilar to this…

Alike in so many ways, yet clearly separated by five decades of relentless engineering and aerodynamic development, it’s spirit and intent that connect them rather than the unbroken lineage of, say, Porsche’s four-decade-old 911RS dynasty. Still, the resemblance is clear, and realised in a more convincing manner than the V8 and DB7 Zagatos that preceded it.

Seeing these two special Astons together has even greater resonance for your humble scribe. For the last five years I’ve been lucky enough to drive for Aston Martin in the Nürburgring 24-hour race, and while I’d known the factory had something special planned for this year’s ‘N24’ it wasn’t until recently I knew it would be a V12 Zagato.

So, while photographer Greg Pajo is busy photographing the red Villa d’Este car (named ‘Zag’ by the guys at the factory), its sister car (yep, you guessed it, ‘Zig’) is being shaken down on Gaydon’s test track prior to being loaded onto a lorry and trucked to the Eifel region of Germany for a pre-N24 race in the VLN Endurance series. More of which later…

Right now I’ve got another Zagato to drive. Yes, the incredibly trusting owner of 37 PH has allowed Aston Martin’s Mark Gauntlett to hand me the key to the beautiful Caribbean Pearl DB4GT Zagato. Understandably it’s quite a moment, not least because, as Gauntlett presses the unassuming ignition key into my rapidly perspiring palm, he calmly whispers in my ear: ‘You might be interested to know we’ve insured the car for £5 million. The excess is £150,000, so try not to bend it…’

There are more famous DB4 Zagatos, most notably the VEV racing cars, but none promises a fresher or more authentic driving experience than 37 PH. The very last of 19 cars to find a customer, chassis number DB4GT/0189/R was completed in December 1962, but it proved incredibly difficult to sell, sticking to the factory floor for nine months until it was bought by HWM in Surrey at a knock-down price before finally finding a customer.

Like most DB4 Zagatos it passed through numerous hands, some using the car for racing. During this time modifications were made and the colour changed, before it found a sympathetic Dutch owner who entrusted it to Aston Martin Works Service for a full ground-up restoration. Work began in the spring of 1995, when it was meticulously returned to as-new condition and specification, including reunification with its original registration number. Since then it has changed hands once more, and covered fewer than 1000 miles.

Approaching a car like this knowing you can open the driver’s door, slide into the seat and power away really does feel as special as you’d hope. The interior is startling: blood red Connolly leather and carpets, contrasting with the lovely black crackle dashboard and chrome-bezelled instruments. The tiny key slots into the dash and the triple carburettor-fed 3.7-litre straight-six fires with an exuberant snort. The clutch pedal is moderately weighty, but the delicate gearstick – topped with a tiny black ball – slots precisely through the tight four-speed gate. Everything feels directly connected to the action.

Despite my repeatedly telling myself ‘It’s just a car… it’s just a car…’, nosing 37 PH out into the traffic is one of the more nervous moments in my driving career. Still, it looks after me, its torquey six compensating for my quivering left knee as I gently feed in the clutch and pull away. The wood-rimmed steering wheel is fatter than you might expect. Just as well because it takes a bit of heft to manoeuvre at parking speed but, once rolling, the weight disappears, so you just gently pinch the rim between thumb and forefinger and guide the car along. The seating position isn’t vintage exactly, but it feels slightly more upright and less low-slung than, say, a Jaguar E-type’s, which was also launched in 1961. Despite funky side buttresses the seats offer vestigial support and, with no seatbelt to hold you in place, you feel oddly loose and disconcertingly naked.

Any lingering anxieties are soon forgotten when the road opens out and the chance comes to stretch the DB4 Zagato’s legs. There’s plenty of poke and a deliciously rousing soundtrack that builds and builds to a mighty crescendo of induction snort and brassy exhaust note. With only four gears to span 150mph, the DB4 has an impressive stride, but such is the straight-six’s mid-range muscle that it’s more than happy to tackle fast, sweeping A-roads in top gear, with the occasional use of third to feel the full force of 300bhp and 278lb ft of torque in a 1200kg car.

Running on comedically skinny crossply rubber the Zagato has absurdly low levels of grip, at least compared with modern machinery. At first you can’t believe how much it moves around on the road, but you soon understand it just loves to move all-of-a-piece through long, quick corners. You don’t so much steer it as nudge it on the way in, then revel in the balance as it settles into the sweetest neutral attitude as you control its stance with the throttle. It’s honestly not as lairy or perilous a process as it sounds, but it does rely on you being able to relax your arms and let the car find its own way through the corners with a minimum of interference.

Caution must be exercised on the brakes, for they need a big shove to get any meaningful stopping power from enthusiastic speeds. Likewise bigger bumps and other assorted road imperfections will catch the damping out, sending a shudder through the car and deflecting it from your chosen path.

As with driving any quick classic car, forward planning and reading the road ahead are the key to quick, controlled progress in the Zagato. That may sound obvious but, because 37 PH’s pace remains impressive and its condition timewarp-perfect, it’s impossible to believe it’s the best part of 50 years old. By the time I return this deservedly iconic Aston to a visibly relieved Gauntlett I’m totally smitten. Whoever said don’t meet your heroes clearly never lusted after – then drove – a DB4GT Zagato.

Just three days after our shoot I’m standing in the pitlane at the Nürburgring, waiting for Aston Martin’s Chris Porritt to return from his qualifying lap in ‘Zig’, the lime green V12 Zagato racer. When he does I’ll be strapped in and waved off – the first person outside Aston Martin to drive this new piece of history.

We’re here for Round 4 of the Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring (or VLN): a four-hour endurance race held on a combination of shortened Nürburgring GP and full Nordschleife circuit. Aston has competed here since 2006, and I’ve been a part of the team since 2007. Things started modestly with a
very lightly race-prepped V8 Vantage, then progressed every year, with Aston using the VLN and ‘N24’ twice-round-the-clock race as part of the development programme sign-off for its road cars.

The Zagato is different in that it’s at the start of its development, but it’s based on a V12 Vantage so much of its core is a known quantity.

Still, it’s been a mammoth undertaking for Chris Porritt – programme engineer on Aston’s One-77 supercar project and driving force in the Zagato adventure – and his tight-knit team to take two bare aluminium tubs and simultaneously turn one into a Villa d’Este winner, the other into a racer fit to tackle the world’s toughest race track in a scant few months. By the end of June ‘Zag’ will also be in full race spec in readiness to contest the gruelling N24 race, but for now ‘Zig’ is forging the way.

With an extensive aerodynamic package, including a rear diffuser the size of a Brunel viaduct and a full-length flat floor running beneath the car to maximise the diffuser’s effectiveness, this green monster looks very different to the red show car. Beneath the bonnet is a mildly tweaked 6.0-litre V12. Good for 525bhp and with a useful increase in torque, it has a mighty war cry thanks to a a full race exhaust system. The transmission is a version of the One-77’s six-speed paddleshift

ASM single-clutch transmission, while the suspension also borrows technology from the One-77, featuring fully adjustable Multimatic DSSV spool valve dampers.

Zig’s wheels are 2in smaller than Zag’s amazing 20in Villa d’Este show rims. They don’t fill the arches quite as dramatically, but GT racing slicks are made for 18in wheels, so that’s what Yokohama supplies to the team. VLN rules don’t allow carbon discs, so the V12 Vantage ditches its standard brakes for giant cast-iron rotors and calipers courtesy of Brembo. A bespoke safety cage and fully stripped interior set an appropriately racy tone.

The lower and more rakish roofline makes it tricky to get in with a helmet and HANS device on, but it’s worth the physical contortion, for the V12 Zagato is a mighty machine. The noise is outrageous: a fierce animalistic snarl that fills the cockpit and penetrates the shell of your crash helmet like a hammer blow. Through the ’screen a heat haze shimmers permanently from the huge bonnet vents. It’s hot in here too, although the car itself isn’t too physical to drive thanks to power steering and that paddleshift transmission.

Years of road car development mean most Astons know their way round the ’Ring, and despite this being the first time the Zagato has run in anger it feels confident and assured through the Nordschleife’s countless curves. Those wide slicks and the dramatic aero package generate immense levels of grip, to the extent that you feel your neck muscles straining through the longest corners, but there’s still a familiar sense of balance and stability recognisable from Aston’s road cars. On the endless Döttinger Höhe straight it pulls an easy 175mph, with more to come.

Sadly, but not wholly unexpectedly, Zig’s debut race becomes more of a shakedown test as the team works through the inevitable growing pains suffered by all newly built racing cars. With enough all-nighters these wrinkles will be ironed out, and by the time you read this both Zig and Zag will have completed another VLN race, prior to contesting the N24 on 25-26 June.

Naturally I’m hoping this pair of racing prototypes have a strong showing in the race, but come what may
this early development is already shaping the character and capabilities of the V12 Zagato road car. From what I’ve experienced so far it’s going to be a fabulously exciting machine and a fitting tribute to the DB4.