Zag and Zag

Zagato’s ultra-desirable Vantage special gets a second life

HAVEN’T I SEEN THESE TWO BEFORE?

Sort of: in 2012 Aston Martin began a doubledigit production run of V12 Zagato coupes, rebodied versions of the V12 Vantage, priced at around £330k a pop. To celebrate Zagato’s 100th birthday, the Italian styling house nd has teamed up with R-Reforged to build new, subtly evolved versions of the original coupe, and a new Speedster version. Together, the two cars are the V12 Zagato Heritage Twins. It’s the kind of recycling we can all get behind.

R WHO?

R-Reforged is a specialist in small-scale automotive projects, putting its creations together at a new engineering centre in Warwick, where the Zagato twins will be built. It’s a subsidiary of Swiss-based AF Racing Group, a project partner with Aston Martin on the Valkyrie hypercar. So far, it’s best known for building Ian Callum’s re-imagined Vanquish 25. This project has Aston Martin’s approval but the Gaydonbased firm is not directly involved.

WHY ARE THEY CALLED TWINS?

Nothing to do with twocylinder engines, nor a tribute to the eminently re-watchable 1988 DeVito/ Schwarzenegger opus, but because the 38 cars will be sold in 19 coupeand-speedster pairs, so you can choose which of your ultra-rare Astons to take out according to the day’s weather forecast. Buy two, get one huge amount of collector kudos.

DEEP BREATH: HOW MUCH?

That’ll be £1.75m before taxes, so a cheeky £2.1m by our maths. The cars can only come as a pair and can’t be purchased separately. R-Reforged worries about the sourcing of the Vantage donor car on your behalf, though if you already have one then it’d surely cut you a deal. Peak power from the 5.9-litre V12 is raised to 600bhp as part of the metamorphosis.