Aston Martin V12 Zagato (2011) unveiled at Villa d'Este

Aston Martin today unveiled the new 2011 V12 Zagato, a V12 Vantage supercar rebodied by Italian coachbuilder Zagato.

We saw the first design sketch a few weeks ago, designed to mark the 50th anniversary of the gorgeous DB4 GT Zagato of 1961. Now Aston Martin and Zagato are unveiling the new V12 at this weekend's Villa D'Este concours in Italy.

The new Aston will appear in two guises: the road car you see here, and a bestickered, more serious racer which will compete in the 24-hour Nurburgring race on 25 June 2011.

Aston has taken a regular V12 Vantage coupe and, working in collaboration with Zagato, draped it in a handcrafted aluminium body sporting numerous Zagato design flourishes such as the light contours and the subtle double bubble roof. They claim the bodyshell could not have been created using machines; instead they used an English wheel and traditional body bucks. The front wings alone use seven separate pieces of aluminium.

The V12 Zagato uses the same  hardware as the V12 Vantage. So they haven't done much to the 6.0-litre V12 engine, which produces 510bhp and 420lb ft of torque.

The endurance racing versions of the Aston Martin V12 Zagato will be fitted with full rollcage, a larger 120-litre fuel tank, uprated six-piston brakes and fully adjustable Multimatic DSSV dampers.

Ulrich Bez, CEO of Aston Martin, said: 'The Zagato design language is a perfect complement to our design and engineering expertise. After 50 years of the two companies being associated with each other the partnership has produced some of the world’s most iconic cars. Of course, 50 years ago Italian design houses were widely seen as leading the way with new designs but now and supported by our independence, Aston Martin has its own in-house design ability so this new venture with Zagato is more collaborative than it perhaps would have been in the past.

'The task for us has been to create a concept that is a natural successor to those iconic cars that have gone before. Matching the technology of the age with the traditional skills vital to deliver such a bespoke and exclusive sports car will lead to a strictly limited run of roadgoing V12 Zagatos.'

So far, Gaydon is being cautious. Aston merely says it is monitoring reaction ‘with a view to a production car following in 2012’.

We'll take that as confirmation it's planning a low-volume, high-margin run of these beautiful Vantages for the Aston Martin connoisseur. And it's likely that further collaborations will follow in future - extendting a history that already includes the 1961 DB4 GT Zagato, the 1986 V8 Vantage Zagato and the 2002 DB7 Zagato.

By Tim Pollard