Italian coachbuilder Zagato constructed only 37 examples of its design for the Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante, which makes this car rare enough to begin with. But it’s hard to imagine that any one of those has been more pampered than this car, which has been driven less than 400 kilometers — about 230 miles — since new, and has been given two bare-metal restorations, the first one by the house shop, Aston Martin Works.
How on earth did this come to be? The seller spells it all out in the ad for this car on the Hemmings Marketplace, but here’s a condensed version: The original owner stored the car until 2011, when he sold it to a sheikh, who commenced a complete restoration of the car by Aston Martin Works. Like the first owner, he parked the car in his collection before selling it in 2021 to its current owner, who commissioned another restoration by an Aston Martin specialist. The sheikh spent the equivalent of $280,000 on cosmetic and mechanical work, including changing the color scheme from Rolls-Royce Royal Blue paint with Magnolia upholstery to Bentley Magnolia paint with blue leather. The third owner spent nearly $50,000 on the second restoration, most of which appears to have involved returning the Volante Zagato to its original appearance.
So, after a purchase price of $171,000 ($424,000 in today’s dollars), two resales for undisclosed amounts and a further investment of $330,000 in restoration work, Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante Zagato number 30032 is looking for its next owner. Its being offered for sale by a dealer in The Netherlands, with an asking price of €299,500, or about $352,000.
From what we can tell, the more recent restoration left in place some of the mechanical changes done for the sheikh. These include the replacement of the Chrysler TorqueFlite three-speed automatic with a “custom made six-speed automatic,” the installation of six-piston AP brake calipers, an upgrade of the cooling system, and a conversion from right-hand drive to left. The eight-way Recaro seats and white-faced gauges have stayed, too, though the Ronal wheels were replaced with original wheels, wearing the last set of Aston Martin centers that were still on the shelf at the factory.
First shown in 1987, the Volante Zagato was the followup to the Vantage Zagato hardtop coupe, the coachbuilder’s modern interpretation of its legendary DB4 GT Zagato of the 1960s. Zagato’s clean and angular design rode on a shortened wheelbase and, in convertible form, sported hidden headlights. The car’s lower weight and smaller frontal area were intended to maximize performance. Designer Giuseppe Mittino, the successor to Ercole Spada at Zagato, cut nearly a foot from the length of the production V8 Vantage, but kept the same wheelbase.
Beneath the hood was a 5,341cc Tadek Marek four-cam V8 rated at 305 hp. Six cars — this was not one of them — were retrofitted with the 432-hp Vantage engine, making them the fastest convertibles of their day, capable of sub 5-second 0-60 times and a top speed in excess of 180 mph. While the coupes needed a hood bulge to clear the quartet of Weber carburetors, the convertibles featured Weber-Marelli fuel injection, allowing a flatter line.
V8 Volante Zagatos rarely come up for sale — in fact, Classic.com reports that only three have been sold at public auction over the past five years.
In its day, the V8 Zagato was prized for its performance and exclusivity, though not everyone admired the lines, with some traditionalists complaining that the car didn’t look like an Aston Martin. Time has a way of changing our perceptions, and Giuseppe Mittino’s work today is considered a classic. If you were to put this one in your garage, what would be your plan — restoration number 3 followed by years of inactivity, or adding at least a fourth digit to that odometer?
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