Speedster and Shooting Brake, new bodies for the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato

Aston Martin surprised everyone at the world debut of the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Volante by confirming the expansion of the collaboration between the British brand and the brilliant Italian designer based in Milan, with the announcement that the Vanquish Zagato Speedster and a third additional Shooting Brake-style body will go into production.

In total, four bodies will make up the Vanquish Zagato model family: Volante, Coupé, Speedster and Shooting Brake. A total of 325 units will be produced, of which 99 will be Coupé versions, 99 Volantes, 28 Speedsters and 99 Shooting Brakes.

Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Volante

Production of the Vanquish Zagato Coupe, the first model to be presented, began in 2016, and practically all of the 99 units that make up the limited edition of the model have already been delivered to their customers. The second variant to enter production has been the new Vanquish Zagato Volante, whose production, also strictly limited to 99 units, has already begun, and Aston Martin expects to finish during 2018. That same year, it is expected to complete the 28 scheduled units of the Speedster variant, the rarest of the four and which is expected to be the most sought-after of them all. The quartet will be completed by a new Shooting Brake body variant now unveiled, which will enter production at the end of 2018 and of which, as with the first two, only 99 units will be produced.

All of them will house under the bonnet the naturally aspirated 12-cylinder V engine with 600 CV in combination with a Slick-Shifting Touchtronic III automatic gearbox and the brand’s adaptive suspension, all specially tailored to the different configurations of each body.

Vanquish Zagato Speedster, 28 authentically sporty and open-top units

The new Speedster variant, which we already saw at the Nürburgring a few days ago, is an open design with no compromises that conveys all the excitement expected from an authentically sporty, very high-performance car. Its look is the boldest of the four versions and features original elements, such as the “Speed Humps” covers that open flowing backwards over the bodywork in the manner of humps extending the seat headrests, forming Zagato’s traditional double-bubble roof.

The Speedster’s bodywork, as with the other three variants, is made entirely from carbon fibre panels. Likewise, all the bodies share a series of style and design elements common to all of them, such as the blade-shaped rear lights, clearly inspired by those of the Aston Martin Vulcan, or the ZZ Zagato motifs constantly repeated on the front grille or the rear ventilation grilles, thus creating a common style across all of them.

Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake, a two-seater for road lovers

The Shooting Brake variant also remains a two-seater and, having been individually conceived as a GT, offers a more practical look than its other “siblings”. The roof design of this variant also incorporates the double bubble typical of Zagato designs, except that this time it extends along the full length of the roof as a glazed surface to let light into the cabin. The roof is finished with a powered tailgate that provides access to a luxuriously finished rear area designed to accommodate the driver’s and passenger’s luggage.

“We have never before launched a family of models like the one proposed by Zagato,” says Marek Reichman, creative director of Aston Martin. “It is something unprecedented for our brand. Many of our customers now want different things. Some prefer the purity of a coupé, but others want more extreme cars, such as the Speedster.”

As with the previous Zagato customisations created for Aston Martin (DB7, DB AR1, and V8 Zagato Coupe and Volante), the four proposals based on the Vanquish are in greater demand than supply. “There are customers who have bought all four and, as always, demand exceeds our supply. We could easily make more units than planned, but we want Zagato models to remain something very special. We are creating collections, future concours cars that will be, as always, the rarest of the rare.”