The good times keep on coming at Aston Martin. With three critically acclaimed new models under its belt with the DB12, Vantage and Vanquish - and Adrian Newey’s imminent arrival at its Formula 1 team (don’t forget the Valkyrie’s Le Mans debut in June, either) - Lawrence Stroll’s vision of a British Ferrari appears to be drawing ever closer.
Better still, newly-appointed CEO and former Bentley boss, Adrian Hallmark, recently revealed to PH that specials are very much back on the cards, with the Vanquish and upcoming Valhalla earmarked to get their own limited-run spin-offs. And if they’re anything like the Aston specials of old, they’ll be some of the most striking, coveted cars on Earth. Sure, there’s the odd in-house offering like this one-of-seven Vantage V600 or this equally scarce Vantage AMR Pro, but the ones that really stand out from the sea of one-off Ferraris and McLarens are the Zagato cars. A bit like this jaw-dropping DB7 Zagato, or the drop-dead gorgeous Vanquish Zagato Volante you see here.
There’s never been a ‘normal’ Aston-Zagato collab - and if you need proof, just go and look at the Italian design house’s take on the DB9 - but the limited-run Vanquish was unlike anything the duo had come up with before. Not least because it wasn’t just one car, but four. The first model, the Vanquish Zagato coupe, arrived in 2016, with Volante, Shooting Brake and Speedster variants launching over the following 12 months. Production was capped at 99 examples for all but the Speedster, of which only 28 were produced, and were priced from £525,000 before a single option was ticked.
Given the second-gen Vanquish S cost only £200k, the Zagato version carried the most mighty of premiums. But just look at what you got in return. The standard Vanquish was hardly a minger, and yet somehow Zagato managed to come up with a look that’s even more astounding. Now, I’ll concede that the design house doesn’t always nail its brief (and there are plenty of Zagato naysayers out there), but the firm’s signature wide grille, those sculpted rear arches and intricate rear lights work objectively well on the Vanquish. Naturally, there’s no double-bubble roof on the Volante, but who cares when it looks this good - especially in Cosmopolitan Yellow. Surprisingly, changes to the interior were far more subtle. There are ‘Z’ patterns on the seats and door inserts, while the headrests are adorned with the company logo.
Zagato specials rarely get significant mechanical changes over the standard models, and that’s mostly the case with the Volante here. The engine is identical to the 5.9-litre, 604hp V12 in the Vanquish S, and it’ll hit 62mph from a standstill just as quickly at 3.8 seconds. Having said that, slight changes were made to the adaptive dampers to firm them up a bit, with reviewers noting a distinct increase in steering texture as a result. Needless to say, you’re paying for that incredible design and the kudos a Zagato badge brings, but it’s good to know that’s as nice to drive as it is to look at.
In fact, you could stare at it for hours and still uncover new and intricate details. How much you’ll have to spend for the luxury will require a call to the dealer of this particular Vanquish Zagato, but this Volante with even fewer miles will set you back around £375k, while doubling the mileage lops off £50k for this example. And if you’d rather ditch the roof altogether, there’s an even rarer Zagato Speedster available for a tenner shy of £600k. But if that all sounds a bit steep, there’s always this drop-top Alfa Romeo RZ that’s almost as striking for a fraction of the price.
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