Aston Martin has released this rendering of its new V12 Zagato racer, which will compete at the Nurburgring this summer.
The 2011 Aston Martin V12 Zagato made its world debut at the Villa D’Este concours d’elegance at the weekend, where it won the Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes.
Design director Marek Reichman said: ‘It is an honour to win this award in Italy, where many great designs originated from, and this victory shows that Aston Martin has successfully developed their own renowned design language over the past years. The result is a car that incorporates the core values of the Zagato design language which we perfectly translated into Aston Martin’s modern design DNA.’
Aston V12 Zagato: the race car
The racer hasn’t been shown yet, but we’ll see the Zagato in track spec shortly. It will compete at the Nurburgring this weekend in the 53rd ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup VLN race on 28 May.
Aston Martin’s chief executive Ulrich Bez will also lead a driver team which will eventually race two V12 Zagato cars at the Nurburgring 24-hour race on 25-26 June.
‘Nurburgring is where we sign-off every new model in terms of dynamics, and there can be no better place for the new V12 Zagato to be finally tested,’ said Dr Bez. ‘The 24-hour race is the ultimate road test and a fitting introduction for the V12 Zagato.’
The roadgoing Zagato
Although Aston says it is monitoring interest in the Zagato, a roadgoing version seems a dead cert. The car takes a V12 Vantage coupe and clothes it in bodywork by Zagato.
It was produced to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the DB4 GT Zagato.
‘Based on the reactions of our customers to this race car, we hope to offer a road-homologated V12 Zagato in a small, limited number as soon as possible,’ added Dr Bez. ‘First feedback has been great so far, this makes us confident that this new Aston Martin V12 Zagato will be a winner of the classic car vote at Villa D’Este in 50 years time.’
For our full story on the new 2011 Aston Martin V12 Vantage Zagato, click here.