It’s been a big day for Aston Martin after they unveiled the new endurance racer concept, V12 Zagto, at Villa D’Este Concours on the shores of Lake Como, Italy. V12 Zagato will have its debut racing challenge at Nürburgring race course later in May. This launch brings about great enthusiasm among care lovers because of Aston Martins’ renewed collaboration with Zagato, one of the renowned Italian design team. This cooperation holds special significance at this time, because of this is the 50th anniversary year of Aston Martin’s iconic DB4GT Zagato.
The Aston Martin and Zagato alliance has a glorious past that dates back to the 1960s, when they worked hand-in-hand for the legendary DB4GT Zagato. Aston Martins’ search for a design house that can make the iconic DB4GT even more lighter and a higher performer ended up in finding Zagato. DB4GT Zagato got great acclaim from car enthusiasts at the London Motor Show in 1960 and the production of this exclusive car began in 1961. DB4GT late became one of the world’s best collector cars and at this fiftieth anniversary this renewed collaboration grabs special attention in the automobile industry.
These two giants have again joined hand in 1986, 25 years after the first product, to build a limited edition V8 Vantage and V8 Zagato Volante Zagato. Both of these models were able to produce record performance by taking only 4.8 seconds to reach 0-100. The Volante convertibles resembled the Coupes in body shape, but had a new grill cover and a non-vantage spec engine. Likewise, the V8 Vantage Zagato has got a reduced size with short chassis and rear seats absent and modified aluminum body from Italy. Their most recent collaboration was in 2002, when they unveiled the grand tourer, Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Zagato, in Paris Motor Show, which was a limited-edition with only 100 cars produced.
To brief the specifications, the V12 Zagato Race Car has a coupe body with two doors and two seats. The whole structure is made of bonded aluminium with bespoke steel roll cage. The aluminium body is hand crafted for better fit and finish. The V12 Zagato is fitted with a 5935 cc V12 engine. It is an all alloy quad overhead cam type with 48 valves. The compression ratio of this Endurance race care is about 10.9:1. This is a rear wheel drive car with front mid mounted engine. The V12 Zagato employs a six speed, rear mid mounted, automated manual gearbox. This features both auto shift manual and select shift manual with electric hydraulic control system. Aston Martin uses the unique magnesium alloy torque tube with carbon fibre propeller shaft for substantial weight reduction and twin plate competition clutch for easy drivability and hence further enhances the performance. The limited slip differential gear arrangement is also used for better stability.
For suspension, the V12 Zagato is fitted with all round independent double wishbone that provides comfort and control with fully adjustable Multimatic DSSV dampers to enhance performance. Ventilated floating grooved discs are used for the braking system. This race car is mated with a 120 litre endurance racing fuel tank.
