Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato

Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato at a glance

The Zagato is the rarest member of the DB4 family. All Aston Martin models are listed in the Aston Martin catalogue.

History: from the DB4 GT to the Zagato

The base of the car was the DB4 GT, introduced in September 1959. It was a shorter, lighter and more powerful version of the DB4 coupé, with a twin-plug engine, two distributors and three twin-choke Weber carburettors. It produced 225 kW and reached 246 km/h. Aston Martin built 75 DB4 GTs with the standard body.

For an even lighter racing version, the DB4 GT was sent to Zagato in Italy, which lightened and improved it; the cars were made by modifying DB4 GTs at the Zagato works. The new car was shown at the London Motor Show in October 1960, only about a year after the DB4 GT itself.

Aston Martin planned to build 25 cars. Demand was weaker than expected, however, and production stopped at 19 originals. The chassis numbers are 0176 to 0191, 0193, 0199 and 0200. Four of them - 0182, 0183, 0191 and 0193 - were built to a lightened racing specification known as DP207/209.

Design and construction

The body was designed by Ercole Spada of Zagato. Compared with the DB4 GT, the Zagato has plain oval grilles, Borrani wire wheels and a smoothed rear end without the small tail fins of the standard GT.

To save weight, Zagato replaced many steel parts with aluminium and used Perspex in some places. Parts that were not needed for racing, such as the bumpers, were left off. In total the car was about 68 kg lighter than the DB4 GT. Wikipedia gives a weight of 1,225 kg in its infobox and 1,250 kg in its data table.

Engine and running gear

The engine is Aston Martin's all-alloy 3,670 cc straight-six with two overhead camshafts. As in the DB4 GT, it has two spark plugs per cylinder, but the compression ratio was raised to 9.7:1. Three Weber 45 DCOE4 carburettors feed the engine. It produces 234 kW (318 PS) at 6,000 rpm and 377 Nm at 5,400 rpm, more than the 225 kW of the DB4 GT.

Power goes through a four-speed all-synchromesh David Brown gearbox to a hypoid bevel final drive with a ratio of 3.31:1 and a Powr-Lok limited-slip differential. The car has Girling disc brakes on all four wheels, without a servo but with separate master cylinders. Wikipedia gives a top speed of about 248 km/h.

Racing: 1 VEV and 2 VEV

The best-known Zagatos are the two cars registered 1 VEV (chassis 0182) and 2 VEV (chassis 0183). They were run by John Ogier's Essex Racing Stable with support from the factory.

The racing debut was not a win. At the Goodwood Easter meeting of 1961, Stirling Moss finished third in a Zagato, behind a DB4 GT and the winning Ferrari 250 GT. At the 1961 Le Mans 24 Hours both Essex cars retired. The first win came in July 1961, in a support race at the British Grand Prix: 2 VEV took the lead from a Jaguar E-Type on the last lap.

In 1962 2 VEV crashed and was rebuilt to the DP209 specification. After another accident in 1993, it was returned to its 1962 form. At the 1962 Le Mans race, chassis 0200 retired after nine and a half hours with a blown piston. These races, together with the Essex cars' later history, gave the model its competition record.

Chassis groups at a glance

Because so few cars exist, collectors and historians identify every DB4 GT Zagato by its chassis number. Wikipedia lists the groups as follows:

The DB4 GT also received one other Italian body in the same years: a single car styled by Bertone, known as the Bertone Jet.

Sanction II and Sanction III

The four unused chassis numbers - 0192, 0196, 0197 and 0198 - led to a second life for the model. Between 1988 and 1991 four "Sanction II" cars were built as works-approved replicas, with the agreement of Aston Martin. The chassis were delivered between January and April 1989, and all four cars were completed in July 1991. They had an engine enlarged to 4,212 cc with 262 kW (357 PS) at 6,000 rpm, and 15-inch wheels instead of the original 16-inch ones.

In 1992 Richard Williams asked Walter Hayes, then executive chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda, for approval of two more cars. These "Sanction III" cars were built from spare Zagato body shells and two neglected DB4s, DB4/344/R and DB4/424/R, and were finished in 2000.

Continuation series and the DBZ Centenary Collection

In April 2019 Aston Martin Works began to build 19 new DB4 GT Zagatos. They were sold only as part of the "DBZ Centenary Collection", a pair of cars that also included a modern Aston Martin DBS GT Zagato. The continuation cars use a 4.7-litre engine with about 298 kW. The number 19 matches the original production run.

This followed an earlier Aston Martin Works project: in 2016 the company announced 25 track-only DB4 GT continuation cars based on the 1959 lightweight specification, built at Newport Pagnell.

Legacy and collectors

The DB4 GT Zagato is the first chapter of the long cooperation between Aston Martin and Zagato. Its successor in that line was the Aston Martin V8 Zagato, and the collaboration continued with models such as the DBS GT Zagato of the 2019 DBZ Centenary Collection. The car's rarity, its Italian body and its racing history explain why originals now change hands for very high sums. For collectors, the most important questions are the chassis number and whether a car is one of the 19 originals, a Sanction II or III car, or a modern continuation car. The background of the company is told in our history of Aston Martin.

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