The name Aston Martin inspires images of English charm and double-oh spy craft, and it can only be made cooler by the addition of one word: Zagato. And that’s exactly the name appended to the end of this model from 1987, which is now being offered at auction.
Among the most valuable Aston Martins of all time is the 1960-1963 DB4 GT Zagato. The two companies joined forces again in 1984, when they happened to be neighbors at that year’s Geneva motor show. That greased the wheels that eventually led to Elio and Gianni Zagato agreeing with the English company’s chairman, Victor Gauntlett, to a run of 50 coachbuilt cars.
The Zagatos had some big plans for their take on the Aston Martin Vantage, a bulky four-seater with a V8 engine. Through the magic of removing two seats and shortening the wheelbase, they were able to make their version of the car 370 lbs (168 kg) lighter than the original.
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That also meant that this was the first two-seater with an Aston Martin badge since the DB4 GT. Thanks to the standard 432 hp (322 kW/438 PS), 5.3-liter V8 engine, it also meant that the car could achieve Zagato’s performance targets of a sub-five-second 0-60 mph (96 km/h) time and a top speed of 186 mph (300 km/h).
In all, 50 customer cars, one prototype, and another pre-production car were made. This example is one of three owned by Shogo Watanabe, a collector from Japan. However, although it is numbers matching, it is not entirely original.
The original bill of sale states that it was shipped new in “French spec,” but was changed to Swiss spec at a later date. That added an uprated cooling system, Ronal style wheels, and a different exhaust system. It also now has a hideous DVD navigation system. Since the car has only traveled 682 miles (1,097 km), how lost could the driver have gotten?
Unfortunately, as the odometer reading would suggest, it has been sitting for a while, which means it may need recommissioning before it can hit the road. Still, estimates suggest that it could sell for as much as €240,000 ($255,828 USD at current exchange rates) at Bonham’s The Zoute Sale on October 8.
