The original DB4 GT Zagatos were beautiful and capable sports cars, built to compete against the best Ferrari had to offer in the 1960s. Only 19 examples were completed and they have become highly soughtafter classics today. The DB4 GT Zagato Continuation models plan to honor these special cars and follow the original design brief as closely as possible and, just like the originals, only 19 will be made.
Forming one half of the Aston Martin DBZ Centenary Collection, the very first DB4 GT Zagato has just been completed and it will be displayed at this year’s 24 Hours Of Le Mans. Andy Palmer, Aston Martin Lagonda president and group CEO, said: “The development and successful creation of this latest Continuation car is an achievement that should not be underestimated. Indeed, it could well be argued that we are making history with these new cars. Celebrating our brand’s deep and enduring partnership with Zagato in this, their landmark year, by launching the DBZ Centenary Collection has been a mammoth undertaking and I’m personally extremely proud of the results in the shape of this new DB4 GT Zagato.”
The car on show at Le Mans represents the pinnacle of Aston Martin’s Continuation projects to date, and proudly continues the brand’s more than 50-year association with world-renowned Italian coachbuilder and design house, Zagato. Finished in Rosso Maja, the car’s exterior colour has been matched to original masters created by Max Meyer & ICI, the paint suppliers for the original cars. Inside, the car is trimmed in Obsidian Black leather and Black Wilton carpets bound in Obsidian Black leather trim cover the floor.
Each car takes 4500 hours to complete and, while there may be a few modern touches, like the carbon fiber racing seats, and FIA-approved roll cage, great care has been taken to retain the unique feel of the originals. As an example hand-finished body panels of the new cars are each worked from flat sheets of 1.2 mm (0.04 inches) thick aluminum and represent hundreds of hours of world-class craftsmanship using techniques that were commonplace almost 60 years ago.
The Continuation models combine all of the best components of the original GT Zagatos and as such each new car will have the most powerful version of the straight-six available at the time, which was a 4.7-liter inline-six producing 390hp. Power is sent to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual transmission and a limited-slip differential. These 19 DB4 GT Zagatos are track-only cars and will follow in the footsteps of the very well received batch of 25 DB4 GT Continuation cars that were completed in 2017.
The next big task for the master craftsmen at Aston Martin will be the Goldfinger DB5 Continuation models, which are scheduled for a 2020 release. In the meantime, the first deliveries to customers of the DB4 GT Zagato cars will commence in the third quarter of this year although they will have to wait until the end of 2020 for their DBS GT Zagato which completes the £6-million ($7.6-million) DBZ Centenary Collection.
Images courtesy of Aston Martin
