Gold‑badged Aston Martin DBS GT Zagato revealed

The DBS GT Zagato arrives 60 years after what for many is one of the greatest-ever Astons, the DB4 GT Zagato, and has been created to mark the famous Milanese coachbuilder’s 100th birthday.

The new DBS GT Zagato and a newly-built re-creation of the DB4 GT are being sold as a then-and-now Zagato tribute double-act at a heady £6 million plus taxes for the two. Just 19 “Centenary Collection” pairs are available.

Aston Martin chose a concours d’elegance in Rhode Island at the weekend to unveil the DBS according to Zagato – despite early teaser pictures, its new form has largely remained a mystery, unlike the second half of the Zagato duo whose pretty face and muscular flanks have been a familiar sight on both road and track since its launch in 1960.

Here then is the ultimate Aston Martin Zagato two-car garage. Both cars share the signature Aston grille, a Supernova Red paint finish and coiled-spring stance, but that’s where the similarities end. Just as Zagato turned the DB4 GT into a model in its own right, so it has given the DBS a whole new identity.

Apart from a power boost from the 5.2-litre, twin-turbo V12 – taking max horsepower from 725 to 760bhp – the DBS GT Zagato retains mechanical familiarity with Aston’s flagship GT. You’d be hard pressed to tell it from the dramatic new body, full of unique Zagato design flourishes like the carbon-fibre roof section that runs from top of windscreen to tip of boot, lacking any rear screen, and the active front grille, made up of 108 diamond-shaped carbon-fibre pieces that pivot open when the V12 is fired up.

It’s all finished off with lots of glitzy, and expensive, automotive “jewellery” like real gold for the badges and anodised gold for the side strakes and wheel nuts. There is exposed carbon-fibre, metal 3D printed interior finishes and “configurable” carbon with gold deposition – similar to the titanium deposition carbon used by McLaren for the Speedtail – in what is a marriage of technical innovation and traditional hand crafting.

Paul Spires, head of Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell where the 19 DB4 GT Zagato continuation models are due to be completed this year, said the two cars together made “a unique and fitting celebration of the brand’s 60-year love affair with this unmatched Italian automotive style icon.”