The collaboration between Aston Martin and Zagato brought us a small run of superb racing berlinettas back in the ‘60s. Only a couple of handfuls were made, but the event was remembered fondly by both parties. As luck would have it, at the 1984 Geneva Motor Show, the Aston Martin and Zagato stands were situated next to each other, leading to impromptu discussions between representatives of the Italian carrozzeria and the English carmaker.
Two years later, at the same venue, three Zagato-bodied V8 Vantage coupés were in town for the car’s big launch. One was on the AM stand, the other on Zagato’s, and the third was on the rooftop of the Hôtel Beau-Rivage, the swankiest place in town. But even then, in March 1986, all the projected 50 cars were already spoken for.
Twenty-five years earlier, Zagato had bodied 19 Aston DB4 chassis – including four lightweight racing specials like the one above. The new V8 Zagato coupé was about as different from its illustrious predecessor as could be, but it was made at a more auspicious time.
The ‘80s were in full swing, a time of supercar madness when some folks were more than willing to part with loadsamoney for a sexy red two-door of almost any description, provided it was fast and exclusive.
Fast it was, with a claimed top speed of 300kph (186mph) and a 0-60mph under six seconds. And given that production would be limited to 50 cars (well, it was actually 52, but near enough), the exclusivity factor was certainly there. Nobody ever said it had to be pretty.
Aston Martin were toying with an EFI system at the time, but elected to keep the 5340cc DOHC V8 fed by a quartet of Webers, leading Zagato to punch a rather ungainly power bulge in the hood.
The interior was more Italian than British in feel, at least in the initial cars like this one. Some of the ones that were built in 1987 apparently had wood veneer on the dash, which kind of defeats the purpose of calling on Zagato, the lightweight specialist par excellence, to design and produce the car.
Aston prepared an even lighter version with a souped-up 432hp V8 that was indeed clocked at 185mph, but production cars actually received a 410hp engine and were not as fast as (misleadingly) advertised by Newport Pagnell’s PR department. It did not matter, the Zagatos sold like the proverbial hotcakes, even before anyone had seen one in the metal.
So much so, in fact, that Aston and Zagato figured they might as well strike twice will the iron (or rather the aluminium) was hot: in late 1987, an Aston Martin V8 Volante Zagato was unveiled. It featured a revamped front end with louvres, an EFI engine that deleted the need for the power bulge and, obviously, a more desirable (for many) soft top. Owners of the Coupé were aghast: their cars were being depreciated, only a year or two after they were so dearly purchased at £95,000 (or US$ 156,000) a pop.
At least, the Volante drop-tops were markedly less potent than their fixed-head forebears, being necessarily heavier and the EFI having robbed the Aston V8 of close to 100hp in the process. Most were sold with automatic transmissions and ended up costing twice the price of the coupé by 1989. Only 37 convertibles were made, the last one in 1990.
Since then, the British carmaker and the Italian coachbuilder have regularly renewed their collaborative efforts, sometimes with small runs of 20-100 cars, like the 2003 DB7 Zagato or the 2011-12 V12 Zagato. But there have also been a number of one-offs, in the tradition of the true coachbuilt cars, like the 2013 DBS Centennial above.
I vividly remember seeing one of these curbside (sorry, that should be “kerbside”) in London in the late ‘90s. It was the Volante version, with those interesting louvres. I recall thinking it looked strange and rather dated, especially that brick-like butt. A quarter century later, it’s still quite an odd duck. But at least the dated bit is a plus point.
And if one looks hard enough, there are even a couple of angles that can border on graceful. If you don’t mind the bump.
The owner looks as interesting as his car. And I have deep respect for the classic car culture of Japan for taking such cars out in public- especially that Bugatti in your older post.
And I agree the hood bulge disprupts the aesthetics, but I’m all for it as it’s serving a performance function. My only other complaint I have is the likely original rims on it don’t quite work. Maybe period correct BBS’s or 5 point Fuch’s styled rims would work nicely. My 87 Integra factory rims looked almost the same as those.
And I admit it’s dated and looks like something from the set of Miami Vice, but overall it looks far more substantial than equivalent modern cars. I feel somehow being without the bug eyed multi projector/LED matrix headlights nor tail lights clusters going halfway up the outboard sides of the rear fenders goes a long way for this. It would make the current SL look cheap if they were side by side, to make a random comparison.
Owner interesting? Reindeer perhaps?
Well, it’s distinctive, I guess. At first glance it looks like a fairly typical 80’s coupe. A bit bland, really, perhaps looking like something from Nissan or even Isuzu. Then you notice that goiter up front. I initially thought my eyes were seeing a distortion of some kind on my screen. But that profile shot-Ugh. Surely some other solution could have been implemented.
I remember first reading about this in high school in CAR magazine, as I recall the pictured car was green although they at times featured a red one like this one (or perhaps this one?) as well. Green, or any darker color, goes a long way toward…ah, who am I kidding, it’s ugly in any color but gloriously ugly like a pug or boxer dog or similar! Any good styling house can make a superficially pretty supercar, it takes talent to make something that people want to like and have to go out of their way to try and find a good angle. Just the audacity of that, something Zagato has managed time and time again, especially (?) once modern plastics came to the styling fore, is why I like it. A lot. Even a bump on a nose can be sexy, it just has to be the right nose and have the rest of the thing to back it up, perhaps even doubling down on it.
The interior though has aged more poorly, and I don’t recall seeing or focusing on it previously. Or I put it out of my mind. It looks more 1976 than 1986 to me, and I do in general love me an ’80s dashboard. Perhaps it’s just the angle the shot in this post was taken?
There isn’t much I want to relive from my high school years, but this post put me right back there in a good way, the cars of the era have stuck with me.
You’ve brought back a memory of that CAR feature. Or is it a false memory because it’s just so easy to imagine it? Including the gushing praise?
Yes, that interior is a bit of a let down, especially that glove box door which looks like it was bought from a GM parts overstock outlet. Wood would likely have helped, but as T87 points out, that would have made the car materially heavier, like by maybe 6 oz?
Reminds me of the Alfa SZ, of course also by Zagato. I wonder if you’ll ever come across one of those…
Looks like the bastard love child of a Subaru SVX and a Mercury Capri. The fox body Mustang Capri. And wheels from some 80’s Nissan. Neat car but man it is hard to find a good line on it.
Im also kinda conflicted about the car its based on, the late 70’s/80’s V8 Vantage is a handsome, sexy car. The V8 under the hood had about 400hp in the late 70’s, making it and the Countach about the fastest thing you could buy with your cocaine cash. Yet at the same time it kinda looks like a Mustang.
Dash reminds me of the Lancia Trevi.
What a great find! An interesting design, that always looked like it should have been a Nissan to my eyes – and in the case of the Volante, a Nissan with a Toyota Celica front end. Unless my eyes are deceiving me, the coupe’s front indicators and fog lights are Mk 1 Ford Sierra Ghia items, and the rectangular buttons ahead of the gear stick are from a Jag XJ/XJS.
Wow, I had never heard a word about these; just too rare, I suppose. Despite the rarity, I can’t imagine it appreciating in value too much. The looks are something only its parents could love. What were they thinking? It’s like a beautiful and glamorous British dame and a dashing Italian playboy having a child, and the unfortunate child somehow ending up with a cartoonish face. Oh, and that interior is a mess; I’m hoping there’s some excuse, like they ran out of money, or the day it was finalized someone remembered it needed an interior and furiously threw something together out of a parts bin… The second attempt is at least a bit appealing, if not particularly beautiful. If i had that kind of money, I’d probably pay more for the later car despite my love of manual transmissions and quad-carb V8s.
So it seems like an eccentric car for the rarely eccentric and rich. Despite some questionable tastes in the 80s (ok, actually no worse than most decades; bell bottoms? $100 torn-up, acid-washed jeans?), I’m a little surprised they sold out instantly. I would think the rule in this kind of car is, it has to be breath-takingly beautiful. It doesn’t have to be fast. It doesn’t have to be reliable. It doesn’t have to be good to drive in any way. But it had better be stunning – in the right way. This is stunning, but not in good ways.
I always rather liked these, one of Zagato’s tidier efforts albeit a bit of a blunt instrument, neatly combining both Aston and Zagato signature styling cues in a fresh, modern way without being a retro pastiche for its time. Say what you will about the interior, but note how the instrument binnacle and its transition into the surrounding dashboard echoes the shape of the traditional Aston grille.