Overview

The Aston Martin DB4 Zagato is a sports car manufactured by Aston Martin in cooperation with the Italian tuner Zagato. The Zagato DB4 is actually an improved version of the production DB4 GT. The car was unveiled at the 1960 London Motor Show. At first Aston Martin and Zagato planned to build 25 vehicles but due to low demand only 20 units were produced. Production ended in 1963. The DB4 Zagato is one of the rarest and popular cars in the world and they are worth a lot of money; at an auction in 1990 a DB4 Zagato sold for 1.7 million.

Variants

Due to the popularity of the DB4 Zagato two subsequent waves of cars based on DB4’s were built. These cars are known as Sanction II and Sanction III automobiles. A large number of replicas was also built to meet the market’s demand.

The Original Aston Martin DB4 Zagato was equipped with a straight six 3.6-Liter engine that produced 314 horsepower and 278 lb-ft of torque. The engine was mated to a four speed manual transmission. In performance test the car accelerated from 0-60 mph in 6.1 seconds and ran the quarter mile in 14.1 seconds. The maximum speed reached was 153 mph. The front suspension was wishbones, coil springs and telescopic dampers. The rear suspension was a live axle on coil springs, located by trailing arms and watt linkage. The car had 16 inch Borrani alloy wheels and four wheel Girling disc brakes.

The first competition the DB4 Zagato entered was in 1961 at Goodwood. The car was driven by Sterling Moss and it finished third behind an Aston Martin DB4 GT and a Ferrari 250 GT.

The most famous DB Zagatos were know by their registration plates 1 VEV and 2 VEV. Both vehicles were raced in the 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans but both cars retired and did not finish the race. The same Zagatos were raced again in the 1962 24 Hours of Le Mans and also in 1963, the last year a DB4 Zagato was raced in he 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In 1991 with the approval of Aston Martin, four unutilised chassis numbers were uprated to GT specifications and then sent to the Zagato workshop to be bodied like the originals, but with a smaller grille, stock DB4 GT tail fins and a smoothed out rear end. An original DB4 Zagato was also sent to be dismantled so the builders could familiarize with the construction techniques used in the 1960’s. Theses four vehicles were known as Sanction II vehicles. They were almost identical to the original DB4 Zagato.

The Sanction II DB4 Zagato was equipped with a straight six 4.2-Liter engine that produced 352 horsepower and 330 lb-ft of torque. It was mated to the same four speed automatic used on the original DB4 Zagato. The Sanction 2 accelerated from 0-60 mph in 5.5 seconds and ran the quarter 13 seconds. The maximum speed reached was 153 mph. Like the original model the car used wishbone suspension with coil springs and telescopic dampers in the front and in the rear the same live axle on coil springs but with improved location and adjustable linkage. Four wheel disc brakes were added but 15 alloy wheels with Goodyear tires were used.

Additional Information

In 1992 the Zagato factory still had 2 spare body shells left over after the production of the Sanction II DB4 Zagato. This year Richard Williams asked the executive chairman of Aston Martin lagonda, Walter Hayes, if he could use the two spare body shells to creat another two “Sanction” vehicles. Walter Hayes Approved and two DB4 Zagato Sanction III vehicles were built until the year 2000.

Many replica cars were also built based on the DB4 and DB4 GT chassis. They looked similar to the original but they were not made by the italian Zagato Company. Even so these replica cars are worth a lot of money.