__NOTOC__ The V8 Zagato model

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...

was a

grand tourer A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with either ...

of the 1980s. Just 52 examples of the

coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

and 37 of the

convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

were built between 1986 and 1990. The coupé was first unveiled at the 1986 Geneva Motor Show, and orders were quickly taken despite only showing the drawing of the car. The decision to build the later convertible was controversial – all 52 coupés had already been purchased at the height of the

supercar A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

speculation market and owners felt that producing additional cars would lower the value of the coupés. The convertibles consistently fetch higher prices than the roofed versions. As the name suggests, the V8 Zagato was based on the

Aston Martin V8 The Aston Martin V8 is a grand tourer manufactured by Aston Martin in the United Kingdom from 1969 to 1989. As with all traditional Aston Martins, it was entirely handbuilt – with each car requiring 1,200 man-hours to finish. Aston Martin we ...

but with a body by the

coachbuilder A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...

Zagato Zagato is an independent coachbuilding company and total design centre located northwest of Milan in Terrazzano, a small village near Rho, Lombardy, Italy. The company's premises occupies an area of 23,000 square metres (250,000 sq ft)- 11,000 of ...

. The design was an angular modern interpretation of the

Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato The Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato is a grand tourer sports car designed by Zagato and produced between 1960 and 1963. Introduced in October 1960 at the London Motor Show, it was effectively a DB4 GT, lightened and improved by the Zagato factory i ...

of the 1960s. The squared off grille was especially controversial. The Zagato was powered by a

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and us ...

with twin choke

Weber carburettor Weber Carburetors is an automotive manufacturing company founded in 1923, known for their carburetors. History Eduardo Weber began his automotive career working for Fiat, first at their Turin plant (in 1914) and later at a dealership in Bologna ...

s. The all-alloy car could reach . It was a luxurious car with a price tag of $156,600 at the time, but with the high rarity, and being released at the supercar price boom of 1987 to 1990, and by the end of the decade, the car was changing hands for £450,000. The later convertible sold for $171,000. The comedian

Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles on the sitcoms '' Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and ''Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and the film series ''Johnny English'' (2003–201 ...

purchased the first right-hand-drive car produced in 1998 and had it converted to Aston Martin Owners' Club racing series C2 specifications. He crashed it in July 2001 whilst competing at an enthusiasts' meeting, but walked away unhurt. The conversion was undertaken by Aston Martin Works Service with a total rebuild cost of around £220,000. The

Tadek Marek Tadeusz "Tadek" Marek (1908–1982) was a Polish automobile engineer, known for his Aston Martin engines. Marek was from Kraków and studied engineering at Technische Universität Berlin before working for Fiat in Poland and also for General Mot ...

5.3 V8 engine was reworked to produce an estimated , carrying the unique designation 580XR. The car retired from racing in 2007 and Atkinson sold it in 2008 for £122,500.

References

* {{Aston Martin V8 Zagato Cars introduced in 1986 Cars discontinued in 1990