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Aston Martin and Zagato have shared an enduring, nearly 60-year-long partnership that began with the DB4 and most recently included speedster and shooting-brake versions of the Vanquish. We now have reason to believe that the creative partnership will carry on, extending next to a very significant model.
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In a recent conversation with Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer, we asked about the recent collaborations with the famed Italian design house. Palmer told us that the plan for this year’s Monterey Car Week had been to release the speedster, limited to a hyperexclusive 28 examples. But the shooting brake was an altogether different story.
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“This year we have Zagato Volante,” he said, “and at Pebble Beach you saw the convertible, speedster, coupe, and the shooting brake. That one is a proper estate car. It’s the same as all the Zags, so basically a Vanquish S underneath, [around] 600 horsepower, 99 total [units]. Two weeks before Pebble, I asked for [the shooting brake], and we came to Pebble and sold it out, based on sketches. No one had seen the model. And the thinking behind it was, I wanted to put a car out there that wasn’t already sold out. So nobody knew about that beforehand, they knew about it two days before Pebble. And in the weekend, it was sold out. All based on a sketch.”
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We asked Palmer: Considering all of the recent interest, and the fact that the current Zagato offerings are sold out, are there plans for a new collaboration or anything in the works?
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“Well, I’ve got one other that we’re knocking around at the moment,” he said. “But it may be a couple of years before we do something more. Whatever it is, it won’t be on the Vanquish platform.” His stating that it wouldn’t be on the VH architecture on which the Vanquish was based had us asking if we could expect the next collaboration to be based on a car we had just driven—specifically the DB11. He replied, “That would be the platform that we’d use, yes.”
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Not confirming the DB11 by name leaves open the possibility for Aston to use any of its future models. But the next-gen Vantage is still testing, has yet even to be officially revealed, and won’t go on sale until sometime next year. The next Vanquish is even further down the line. The DB11 would be a natural candidate, and with its long hood, wide body, and alluring proportions, we can already picture Zagato’s signature “double bubble” gracing the roof. Carbon-fiber body panels and Z-motif quilting on the interior could be included as well.
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Palmer suggested the next Zagato model could be a couple of years away, but with all of the interest typically generated by the partnership, we wouldn’t rule out a reveal during the 2018 Pebble Beach weekend. Regardless of when the car will make its debut, if history is any indicator it’s almost guaranteed to be stunning, to be offered for sale in hyperlimited numbers, and to carry a substantial price premium.
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