The Aston Martin V12 Zagato is a British sport car made by Aston Martin in collaboration with Zagato to celebrate a fifty-year partnership since the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato. Introduced in Lake Como, Italy at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este on 21 May 2011, the Zagato was awarded with the competition's "Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes" which has also been won by the One-77 in 2009.

Like the Aston Martin V12 Vantage on which it is based, the V12 Zagato is powered by a 6.0 L V12 engine with 510 bhp (380 kW / 517 PS), and 570 Nm (420 lb ft) of torque.

Designed at the Aston Martin Design Studios in Gaydon, the chassis - engineered by a Chris Porritt-led team including veterans of Astons Martins's One-77 project - features a retuned version of the regular V12 Vantage’s double-wishbone suspension . The design features a new handcrafted aluminium body with the front similar to the Vantage with differences in the roof and rear section. Another difference is the endurance racing fuel tank carrying up to 120 litres of fuel.

Following a large interest by customers Aston Martin announced they would build a homologated version of the car, producing only a limited run of 150 at the Aston Martin headquarters in Gaydon. Starting delivery in the second half of 2012, the Zagato was priced at around £330,000 excluding local taxes.

The Aston Martin V12 Zagato made its racing debut at the 53rd ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup VLN round at the Nürburgring on 28 May, the event for the car being a preparation and development experience ahead of the Nürburgring 24-hour race, to be held on 25–26 June.

Two V12 Zagatos competed in the 51st ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen VLN four-hour race on 11 June. Again as a test session ahead of the Nürburgring 24-hour race. Aston Martin Chief Executive, Dr. Ulrich Bez lead the driver team joined by the company's Nürburgring Test Centre Director, Wolfgang Schuhbauer plus experienced amateur racer Peter Cate in the first of the two V12 Zagato's. The sister car was driven by One-77 Chief Engineer Chris Porritt, experienced sports car driver Oliver Mathai and automotive journalist Richard Meaden. Competing in the SP8 category, the V12 Zagatos; near production standard cars with only essential safety and aerodynamic modifications required for racing, took 2nd and 3rd place in class, equating to 15th and 39th overall in field of some 150 largely specialist cars.

...
Wikipedia