Love them or hate them, automotive styling houses have been around since manufacturing began. Reserved generally for the super-rich, some it has to be said, have a lot more style than others. Over the years the partnership of Aston Martin and Zagato is probably one of the more successful partnerships.

The first such joint venture happened in 1961 and the DB4 GT Zagato was born but in 1984 Victor Gauntlet and Peter Lavanos of Aston Martin approached the Zagato brothers again at the Geneva Motor Show. This collaboration was to bring about the birth of a new two seater sportscar with a V8 engine, a 0-62mph time of sub 5 seconds and have a top speed of 200mph with only 50 examples to be built. Zagato wasted no time in taking on the project.

By 1986, the result was a successful one that almost met the brief. Zagato produced a custom rear wheel driven Aston Martin Vantage with 5.3 litre Four-cam aluminum V8 producing 432bhp which was driven by a 5-speed manual gearbox. Improving stopping power, it featured disc brakes all round. During initial testing it reached a top speed of 186mph, just 14mph short of the target which in 1985 was exceptional for a rad going coupe. 0-62 time of just 4.8 seconds was also achieved.

All 50 examples sold and Aston Martin went on to produce an open top Volante, which no doubt in the 80's, weighed almost as much as a double decker bus.