Aston Martin V12 Zagato Completes First Running at the Nürburgring

Aston Martin’s new V12 Zagato endurance race car concept has completed its first running under race conditions in the 53rd ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup VLN race at the Nürburgring, just one week on from its first public appearance at the Villa D’Este Concours.

The typically eventful four-hour race with over 150 other competitors formed part of vital preparations ahead of a two-car V12 Zagato entry at the Nürburgring 24-hour race in late June. The new V12 Zagato was joined by four other Aston Martins in the field, including the factory supported V8 Vantage (nicknamed ‘Smurf’) and V12 Vantage (called “Kermit”).

The V12 Zagato completed useful development laps during the four-hour race and while experiencing some inevitable teething issues, accrued valuable data which can be used to hone the car ahead of the 24-hour race next month.

Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport, David King said, “For V12 Zagato today was all about working on our race setup and developing the car ahead of the 24-hour race. Clearly, the car is still in the very early stages of development having only been unveiled a week ago and it was important for us to take as much learning and data as possible from today and give our drivers chance to familiarize themselves with the car.

“In terms of our other runners, the V12 Vantage was very unfortunate to be caught up in an incident on the first lap but managed to limp to the pits where the team heroically made the necessary repairs to get it running and back in the race. Today’s major highlight though proved our V8 Vantage with Darren (Turner) and Jurgen (Stumpf) who drove superbly to a second in class finish.”

Making its world debut at the Villa D’Este Concours last weekend, the Aston Martin V12 Zagato won the Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes on the shores of Lake Como, Italy.

Introduced as a modern interpretation of the famous Aston Martin and Zagato collaboration in the 50th anniversary year of the iconic DB4GT Zagato, the V12 Zagato was shown for the first time at the prestigious international event, sparking great interest amongst visitors and customers.

Reviving a collaboration which has produced some of the most beautiful and sought-after cars in the world, the partnership takes inspiration from the past, to create a modern descendent of classics such as the DB4GT Zagato, V8 Vantage Zagato and DB7 Zagato based on Aston Martin’s ultimate performance interpretation of the Vantage range: the V12 Vantage.

Following further development work in the UK, Aston Martin’s pair of new V12 Zagato’s will return to the Nürburgring on June 11 to compete in the next ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup VLN race as final preparation for the grueling Nürburgring 24-hour race, to be held over June 25th – 26th.

Aston Martin Forms New Collaboration with Custom Coachbuilder Zagato

John Eagle European’s Aston Martin of Austin has announced that Aston Martin formed an exciting new collaboration with renowned Italian design house Zagato. This year marks the 50th anniversary year of the iconic DB4GT Zagato and the first vehicle from this renewed relationship was shown for the first time at the famous Villa D’Este Concours on May 21 2011. Then, a racing version of the new sports car debuted last weekend at Nürburgring; this was an amazing feat as it was just one week later.

“Many consider the DB4GT Zagato to be the pinnacle of Aston Martin sports cars built in the 1960’s,” said Sonny Morgan, Aston Martin of Austin managing partner. “Zagato and Aston collaborated on two other cars subsequent to the DB4 program, which both were acclaimed for their design.

“We’ve been asked many times about rumors of a new Aston Martin Zagato since the news first broke. Is it based on the V8 or V12 Vantage? How many will be built? Will it be available in the United States? We look forward to sharing all the details about this wonderful sports car once it officially debuts this weekend in Italy.”

Aston Martin and Zagato have enjoyed a long relationship since their first collaboration which culminated in the production of the now iconic DB4GT Zagato 50 years ago. The 1960 DB4GT Zagato was created to compete with the mighty Ferraris of the period. Aston turned gave their sporting coupe more voluptuous styling, a better power to weight ratio, a bit more power superb brakes and sharper handling. Only a few of these rare, exclusive cars were built. Today, those cars command multi-million dollar price tags and are considered among the most coveted Astons in the world.

Work on the new Aston Martin Zagato collaboration is well under way with an initial concept to be presented at the Villa D’Este Concours to gauge initial customer reaction with a view to a production car following in 2012. Held on the shores of Lake Como Italy, this event has become one of the crown jewels of the collector car world.

Dr. Ulrich Bez, Chief Executive said: “The DNA of both Aston Martin and Zagato has combined successfully to make some of the world’s most desirable collector cars in the past and in this special anniversary year of the DB4GT Zagato it is appropriate to explore a modern collaboration.

“Now is the right time for a new Aston Martin Zagato and in combining our design intelligence. I think we can create something fitting of the iconic DB4GT Zagato that has gone before and since established itself as one of the most famous Aston Martins of all time.”

According to Aston Martin Design Director, Marek Reichman, “Our designers are able to collaborate with a broad spectrum of organizations and individuals to seek new and exciting ideas and inspiration due to Aston Martin’s independency.

“Working with Zagato again in 2011 is inspirational for the team – certainly DB4GT Zagato is one of my favorite ever designs as it is with many of the designers in our studio. We can create a truly modern Aston Martin interpretation which stays true to the historical routes of the relationship with Zagato."

The first partnership between Aston Martin and Zagato began as a quest to create an ever lighter and higher performance version of the DB4GT. Aston Martin approached Zagato, a company renowned for such projects. Managing Director, Elio Zagato and Technical Director Gianni Zagato along with a talented team managed to draft the main designs of the DB4GT Zagato in just one week.

After previewing the car late in 1960 at the London Motor Show to great acclaim, Aston Martin began taking orders and production began in 1961. Of the original 19 DB4GT Zagato built, all still survive and are part of some of the world’s greatest car collections. The first car built and used to unveil to the public was later extensively raced beginning with its debut at Goodwood in 1961.

Of all of the DB4GT Zagatos, three were built to a lightweight racing specification designated within Aston Martin as DP209 (Design Project Number). Among these were perhaps the two most famous DB4 GT Zagatos, ordered by the Essex Racing Stable and registered as ‘1 VEV’ and ‘2 VEV’. These cars were raced successfully by greats such as Jim Clark and Roy Salvadori. As a tribute to this racing heritage, the new Aston Zagato will be campaigned in endurance racing beginning with the Nürburgring on May 28.

25 years after this first collaboration between Aston Martin and Zagato the two companies joined forces again in 1986 to design and build a limited number of the V8 Vantage Zagato and then later the V8 Zagato Volante. The former of the two cars, based upon the highly acclaimed V8 Vantage, was heralded as one of the most dynamic Aston Martins offering performance figures of 0-60mph in 4.8 seconds and a top speed of 186mph.

A more recent project took place with the design and production of the DB7 Zagato. Launched at the Paris Motor Show in 2002 with production following in 2003, a total of 99 examples were built for sale with number 100 kept by Aston Martin. After the announcement of the DB7 Zagato, a great deal of interest was shown by American customers for a version suited to the climates of Florida and California. Thus, the collaboration extended to an identical number of DB-AR1 (American Roadster 1) being built. Similar in styling to the DB7 Zagato but built as a pure two-seat roadster with no roof, the DB AR1 fulfilled this demand perfectly.