Aston Martin V12 Zagato revealed

Aston Martin has revealed the production-ready V12 Zagato at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. It will be delivered to customers in this guise from later this year.

What is it?

The beautiful Aston Martin V12 Zagato is a bespoke styling exercise based on the fearsome V12 Vantage and derived from a shortened DBS platform. Built to mark 50 years since the launch of the DB4GT Zagato, it will be strictly limited to just 150 cars.

What's hot?

Designed in celebration of the famous Italian styling house, Aston Martin has incorporated plenty of Zagato cues within the V12 Zagato, from the double-bubble roof to the 3D grille made of interlocking 'Z' shapes. It looks stunning - and gains additional kudos by being built on the same production line as the departing One-77 hypercar.

What's not?

The hand-built model was designed by Aston Martin in honour of Zagato, not by Zagato itself. Arguably, this is why it's ended up being so truly pretty, but it still means it's not quite the real thing. Few will care, though.

How much and when?

The Aston Martin V12 Zagato costs £396,000 and deliveries will start from autumn 2012. Dr. Ulrich Bez has revealed here at Geneva that orders are already starting to be placed.

Anything else I should know?

Aston Martin has created four unique colours for the V12 Zagato - Scintilla Silver, Alloro Green, Alba Blue and Diavolo Red. Painting the car alone takes 100 hours: total assembly time of each V12 Zagato is 2,000 man hours. The famous Aston Martin 'wing' badge also gets a unique twist here: the normal green background is red for the V12 Zagato.

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