19 Aug 02
Two men are asked to judge a class at California's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in August 2001, and whilst invigilating, get into a discussion: what design features they like on a car, what they don't like, what works well, what doesn't. And out of this chance meeting springs the idea to make an exclusive sports car together - just like that. But this project saw more chance than most of coming to fruition, since these men were Ulrich Bez, CEO of Aston Martin, and Andrea Zagato, of the eponymous legendary Italian design house. Their respective companies had worked together in the past, most notably to produce the beautiful DB4 GT Zagato of 1962, and then the rather less beautiful V8 Vantage and Volant models of the mid-'80s. And most crucially for the entire development programme, Aston Martin has, these days, the financial back-up of the mighty Ford Motor Company.
Bez and Zagato worked out a clear briefing for the car by November. New design chief Henrik Fisker took up the project upon joining Aston from BMW in December, and he and Zagato communicated via e-mail, fax and phone until a full-sized computer rendering was completed. A few minor tweaks by Fisker - including the decision to reinstate the trademark Aston side air vents and the enlarged grille - and the final approval for the design was signed off at the Geneva Motor Show in March this year. The car was unveiled to its first potential customers in July; 120 "prospects" from the Aston database were invited to Savile Row tailors Gieves and Hawkes for an exclusive preview, and the first buyers to stump up the requisite £170,000 or so will take delivery this autumn. Just 99 cars will be made, almost certainly guaranteeing their status as collectable future classics.
The blueprint set out a car that recalled the DB4 GT Zagato, a light-weight, higher-powered limited edition of 19 cars which cost £5,470 each. "But we don't see it as really retro", says Fisker. "We see it as more of a Zagato in the tradition of Zagato and Aston Martin. The idea of this car was, like the original DB4 and DB4 GT Zagato, for the DB7 and the DB7 Zagato to have a relationship in design. So you couldn't go off in some futuristic direction." So the beautifully-executed DB7 Zagato just about stays the right side of that delicate line between alluding to the past and retro pastiche, and between looking a bit like the DB7 it was derived from, but not too much so.
