Way back in 1962, when most of you were in your 30's (grin) Aston Martin was trying to beat Ferarri. They weren't having much luck, so they sent 19 cars to Italian coachbuilder Zagato for custom bodies and overall lightening. As the story goes, Zagato took almost 100 lbs out of the car. They built 19 aluminum bodies and 17 cars.

They never did beat Ferarri, but they built one of the most beautiful cars ever.

Sotheby's auctions figured this one would go for $17M. It sold for a measly $14M to the guy that started and owns Weathertech Floormats. He sent it off to a premier resto shop and had a frame off resto done.

Dad did the interior the first time in 2017 before the owner took it to England for a rally race. The second time Dad did it was for it's trip to Pebble Beach in 2019.

It ended up winning it's class (Zagato Centenial Post War), an Elegance Trophy and was one of four cars nominated for best in show. Apparently, it's pretty rare for a post war car to even be in the running. It certainly looks out of place with the Bentley.

Here are pics from the first time Dad did the interior. He was pretty nervous having a $14M car in there.











The second time Dad did it, it showed up like this.





What it was up against



The win



And the final four.

Oh man, that is sweeeet!!

Beautiful cars. Thanks for sharing the photos!

Cool cars. Thanks for posting.

Only Marque I'd give up my 911 for !

I'd have to pop the hood!

100 pounds or 1000 pounds lightened?

That’s one sexy beast as Austin Powers would say!

I saw one of those in Spain many moons ago. It sounded and looked beautiful.

One hundred pounds.

Here's a pretty good article on it.

https://silodrome.com/aston-martin-db4-gt-zagato/

Sweet car!

Higginez;
Good afternoon again my friend, I still hope you're all having a wonderful day.

Thanks again for the photos and videos, as always I enjoyed them immensely.

The whole realm of vintage autos, especially European and British is really something that I'm only very distantly aware of as far as automotive stuff goes so it's all very educational too.

All the best to you all.

Dwayne

Dwayne,

You bet. Since Dads best friend and business partner of 50+ years died a little over a year ago, I've been trying to stop in and check on him without him thinking I'm stopping in to check on him. Taking pics of the cars has been a pretty good smoke screen.

All the best to you and yours as well.

Higgins

Beautiful cars!

This ^^^

Higginez;
Thanks for the reply and I'm sorry to hear about your Dad's business partner.

Good on you for checking up on your father though sir, shows character - well done.

Thanks again and all the best to you all in the upcoming week.

Dwayne

Woooooo(wipes drool off lower lip)oooow!!!!

Could buy a good Aston Martin in the 70s for 5k in the 70s of course I was making 19 grand.

You should have bought three a year! LOL

THAT is my one most favored model of automobile - simply the best for me. Had a single chance to buy a good one at a decent low price - but other priorities prevailed. Sad.

Thanks for posting this - every superlative fits.

You had a chance to buy a 62 DB4GT Zagato?

Mr. Bond. Your car is ready.
PJ

I was going to ask if that one had machine guns and an ejection seat????

That one is in the next few months.

I lived in England in 1963 to 1966, when my dad was stationed over there in the USAF....

Went to the Edinburgh Flower Festival of April 1964 for the first time. They herd everyone to one end of the park with sits at the base of the prominent that Edinburgh Castle sits on... They did the Lone Piper, come out above us on a cliff, and he played Amazing Grace on the bag pipes, low at first and then via loud speakers, the volume slowly rises as the fog clears... inspirational.

Then after that, they start the festival off, with over the Loud Speakers, you hear the Theme to the James Bond movies. Coming down the road from the castle you hear a high rev'ing engine and tires squealing. It is one of the Aston Martin's from the James Bond Movie... you can see it all where they have the crowd standing... The Aston Martin is chasing some " bad guys" on dirt bikes, and also being chased by some. You hear the machine guns via the A.M, firing ( blanks of course) and the front two dirt bikes go down.. then the two following, you hear their machine pistols being shot and the Aston, has the bullet shield come up, and then there is machine gun fire from it, and the two bikes behind go down.
Finally as the Aston nears the curve over the crowd, a body in a seat, pops out of the car, and goes flying off the cliff, toward the crowd. It is of course a Manikin, and a chute pops open to deliver it gently to the ground. The Aston pulls up in front of the crowd.. and the driver gets out...
to our disappointment, it is NOT Sean Connery.

but that was the opening of the Edinburgh Flower Festival in 1964. They left the Aston there on display, with the driver to protect it from the crowds.... "Look but Don't Touch".. and yeah it was one of the ones used in the movie....

and yeah, I have been a DB4, 5 and 6 fan, ever since.

You sure you weren’t at Universal Studios Seafire?

Bump

What a car.

That's TIGHT !

$7.3M will buy you a new reissue with about 100 more hp AND a brand new DBS Zagato! Get out your wallet and go racing boys!

A DB4 Series 2.

Gorgeous

Well, just think of all the money you saved in repairs!

You have a point there, but not all Brit sports types are of the same difficulty. The DBs are very well worked out and very little trouble other than some tuning (although spares can be quite costly), but an otherwise nice/fun Jag was much more of a headache at times. Seems like I was always working on or trying to find some costly part for that thing. OTOH, the TR3 was almost trouble free except for some Lucas stuff. Pick 'yer poison.

They haven't made anything with that combination of class, elegance, and performance in a long time. E-type Jags, of course, some of the early Ferraris. Nothing in recent memory.

British pounds or.... Italian?

Gonna have to call in an expert on this one.

LOL

Pretty cool video of the most famous AM Zagato car from back in the 60's, the 2vev.

Kinda crazy to think a new Toyota would eat it alive! LOL