Aston Martin V8 Zagato

Aston Martin V8 Zagato at a glance

The V8 Zagato belongs to the series of Zagato-bodied Aston Martins that began with the DB4 GT Zagato; the DB4 story is told in the Aston Martin catalogue and in our history of Aston Martin.

History: Geneva 1986

Aston Martin presented the V8 Zagato coupé at the Geneva motor show in 1986. Unusually, the company took orders there when only a drawing of the car had been shown. Its predecessor in spirit was the DB4 GT Zagato of the early 1960s, of which Zagato bodied 19 cars.

Production ran until 1990. The coupé was followed by the Volante convertible, and the final count was 52 coupés and 37 Volantes. The car arrived during a boom in supercar prices between 1987 and 1990, and according to Wikipedia values rose sharply by the end of the decade.

The base: V8 Vantage

The V8 Zagato is built on the V8 Vantage, which Aston Martin produced from 1977 to 1989 and which was hailed at its introduction as "Britain's first supercar". The Vantage used a 5.3-litre V8 with high-performance camshafts, a higher compression ratio, larger inlet valves and bigger carburettors than the Lagonda saloon. Early Vantages produced about 283 kW (380 bhp), and Aston Martin claimed a top speed of 270 km/h - Motor magazine measured 270 km/h in 1981.

The Vantage was developed in several stages. The "Oscar India" version produced about 291 kW (390 bhp), and a factory 6.3-litre conversion about 336 kW (450 bhp). The open Vantage Volante, built from 1986 to 1989, included 166 standard cars and about 26 in "Prince of Wales" specification.

From 1986 an "X-Pack" upgrade with Cosworth pistons and new cylinder heads raised the Vantage to about 301 kW (403 bhp). In total, 534 V8 Vantages were built, 342 saloons and 192 Volantes; 137 of the Series 2 coupés had the X-Pack. A big-bore option with 322 kW (432 bhp) was also available, the same figure the Vantage article gives for the Zagato.

Design by Zagato

The body was designed at Zagato by Giuseppe Mittino. It is an angular, modern interpretation of the DB4 GT Zagato of the 1960s. The Volante has a different front end and a flat bonnet without the coupé's bulge.

Engine and performance

The engine is the 5,341 cc V8 of the Vantage, fed by twin-choke Weber carburettors. The V8 Zagato article on Wikipedia gives 321 kW (430 bhp); the V8 Vantage article gives 322 kW (432 bhp) for the Zagato engine. Aston Martin claimed that the coupé could reach 300 km/h.

Timeline

Rowan Atkinson's V8 Zagato

The best-known V8 Zagato belonged to the actor Rowan Atkinson, who bought the first right-hand-drive car. He crashed it in July 2001 without being hurt. Aston Martin Works Service then rebuilt the car to the specification of the Aston Martin Owners' Club C2 racing series, with a reworked 580XR engine estimated at 359 kW (482 bhp). The car raced until 2007, and Atkinson sold it in 2008.

Legacy

The V8 Zagato renewed the link between Aston Martin and Zagato. It was followed in 2003 by the DB7 Zagato, a coupé with Zagato's "double-bubble" roof built on a shortened DB7 Vantage chassis, and by the open DB AR1. Both later cars were designed with Henrik Fisker and used a V12 of about 324 kW (435 hp). The DB7 on which they were based, designed by Ian Callum and Keith Helfet, became the most-produced Aston Martin up to that time, with more than 7,000 cars. For other limited Aston Martins, see the V12 Vantage.