Road - To die for!

At a time when car designs are being dictated by Euro regulations and NCAP safety requirements it’s reassuring to know that not everyone has succumbed to bland looks and functional styling. Enter the Aston Martin Zagato.

Scheduled to go on show at Geneva next month, this styling exercise is due to go into production in the third quarter of this year, and orders are being taken now. There’s just one tiny, wee drawback. The price. A mere 330,000 pounds sterling.

No more than 150 of the cars will be built at Gaydon and according to AM, each V12 Zagato will take around 2,000 man-hours to build. The bonnet, ‘double-bubble’ roof and doors are hand-crafted aluminium, while the front and rear fenders, door sills and boot lid surround are made from carbon fibre.

Each buyer will be able to specify their colour, so long as it comes from one of four - Silver, Alloro Green, Alba Blue and Diavolo Red. Why only a four colour choice? Apparently the painting process takes some 100 hours to complete on each car before the body is fitted to the drivetrain within the sports car production area. From there the V12 Zagato is transferred to a separate facility which was originally built to house One-77 production, where the build is completed.

At the heart of the beast will be the all-alloy, quad overhead cam, 48 valve, 5935 cc V12 engine which pushes out some 510 bhp at 6500 rpm and generates 570 Nm of troque. That should equate to an acceleration time of 4.2 seconds for the 0–100 km/h (0-62 mph) sprint with a theoretical top speed of 190 mph.

If anything was designed to make us poor anti-gambling suckers start doing the Lottery, this is it.