Renderings give a tantalizing glimpse of the car with which Aston is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
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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