Put on the brake!
Though the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake was announced late last year as a limited run, the company recently showed off new photos of the vehicle just this week. The Instagram post was meant to announce that production had started on the vehicle, but mostly served to set automotive mouths drooling, since the run is limited to 99 units. This work-of-art edition adds to the Vanquish model a naturally-aspirated 5.9-liter V12 engine producing 433kw, mated to an eight-speed auto gearbox. Headquartered in Italy since 1919, Zagato is the coachbuilding design firm that partnered with Aston Martin, which is itself the British luxury sportscar firm founded in 1913. Starting in the late 1940s under David Brown’s guidance, the company began to be known for its posh grand touring cars and, of course, James Bond’s iconic 1964 DB-5. The shooting brake name was coined in the 1890s for horse-drawn wagons transporting hunting parties and their equipment, and now denotes a sleek combination of station wagon and coupe. The style has been revived since GM’S 2004 unveiling of the Chevy Nomad concept wagon ,the 2005 Dodge Magnum station wagon and 2012 Mercedes Benz Cls-class Shooting Brake, and lives on in the new Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo.