Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake Looks Breathtakingly Beautiful In The Metal

A prototype test mule of the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake has been spotted for the first time.

Last summer, Aston Martin unveiled the awe-inspiring Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake, which will be joining the Vanquish Zagato Coupe, Volante, and Speedster. So far, we’ve been able to marvel at its beauty in render images. Now, over a year later, a Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake prototype has been spotted in the metal for the first time. Prepare to pick your jaw up from the floor.

The first photo posted on Reddit shows the stunning shooting brake storming down the M23 UK highway, while photos shared by Twitter user @dusiue78 give us a clearer look at the camouflaged prototype being transported on the Eurotunnel to Calais. Like other cars in the Zagato Vanquish family, the Shooting Brake features carbon fiber body panels, Vulcan-inspired taillights and 3D Zagato ‘Z’ motifs in the front grille and rear vent meshes. Obviously, the Shooting Brake stands out from the rest thanks to its stretched roofline.

You’ll notice, however, that the prototype shown in these new photos doesn’t have a gloss carbon roof like the car shown in Aston Martin’s renders. The whole exterior appears to be painted in matte red, including the rear diffuser and side air vents. It’s a shame because the car doesn’t look quite as striking without the bold black accents. But we’re nit-picking here, because the shape still looks sensational.

Being based on the outgoing Vanquish S, the Shooting Brake is powered by a naturally aspirated V12 that produces 592 hp. Aston Martin is only building 99 examples of the Zagato Shooting Brake, which matches the production runs of the Coupe and Volante. The Speedster, on the other hand, will be even more limited, with just 28 units planned for production.

Aston Martin Breaks The Internet With New Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake

And yes, all 99 units are already sold out.

It’s not just you, the variation in ultra-high luxury models is on the up and up as an ever wealthier clientele decides to put their money where their wheels are. The boom in the high-end luxury segment is leading us to a golden age of ultra-rare works of automotive art and is singlehandedly reviving the art of coachbuilding. And if the $850,000 Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato wasn’t outlandish enough for your fancy tastes, the Italian coach builder has another model it revealed today.

Zagato previously unveiled the Vanquish Zagato Coupe and then followed that with Volante and Speedster versions revealed at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. During that show, the company also alluded to a Shooting Brake variant with sketches, but today it took the time to officially unveil that version to the public. The addition to the Zagato family is a boon for Aston Martin and Zagato. With 99 units of the Vanquish Zagato Coupe, Volante, and Shooting Brake as well as 28 Speedsters, the total production run comes out to 325 cars. Multiply that by the $850,000 base price of the Vanquish Zagato Volante (the Shooting Brake and Speedster cost even more) and you start to see how the coachbuilding business can be plenty profitable.

With that kind of financial motivation, why did it take Aston Martin and Zagato so long to get the Shooting Brake’s official design out to the masses? Road and Track asked Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer that very question and found that its Pebble Beach reveal was a spur of the moment decision. According to the executive, Aston Martin and Zagato wanted to quench fans’ thirst for the exotic grand tourers with something they had never seen before. Given that both the Speedster and Volante the companies brought to the show had sold out before anyone saw them in the metal, Palmer wanted to take the audience by surprise and asked Aston's design chief Marek Reichmann to sketch up a shooting brake version of the Vanquish Zagato.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, with another 99 units of the Zagato Shooting Brake—which at that point only existed on paper—being sold out at the show. Funnier still is the fact that the Zagato Shooting Brake doesn’t exist as a road car. "We have half of one in clay," Palmer said. "We haven't finished the other side yet.” The images we see here are computer-generated sketches of what the final product will look like. The Shooting Brake features a glass roof designed with Zagato’s signature “double bubble” design, Zagato’s modern design touches, two seats, a "luxuriously trimmed” rear luggage compartment, and a 5.0-liter naturally aspirated V12 sending 592 horsepower to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic.

Performance figures remain under wraps, but it’s safe to assume 0-62 mph will pass by a little after the Coupe’s 3.7 seconds or the Volante’s 3.9 seconds given the extra weight. Just as murky is the price, which may as well be irrelevant to buyers who can afford to drop close to seven figures on a car. Either way, look for the Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake at exclusive car shows sometime in 2018.

Aston Martin Rapide Shooting Brake Is A $4 Million One-Off

It’s the last car ever built by Bertone before the company went bankrupt in 2014.

Back in 2009, legendary Italian styling house Bertone built a one-off Aston Martin concept known as the “Jet 2 shooting brake” based on the DB9 platform. This attracted the attention of entrepreneur and Aston Martin fanatic Barry Weir, who contacted the design house requesting to buy it only to be told it was a one-off built for Lilli Bertone and wasn’t for sale.

A few years later, Bertone contacted Weir in 2012 offering to build another Jet 2 shooting brake, only this time the car would be based on the Rapide sedan. The final Aston Martin Jet 2+2 concept was unveiled a year later at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show.

Under the hood is the same 5.9-liter V12 that powers the regular Rapide, but the one-off shooting brake arguably looks even more elegant than the standard car while offering more luggage space and a large glass roof. Weir has owned the Aston Martin Jet 2+2 since he bought it in 2012 but is now selling it along with the original mould. According to Top Gear, he spotted the mould and tooling at an auction after Bertone went out of business and snapped them up before putting them into storage.

“When the car was built, Bertone were keen to build 10 cars and then Aston Martin wanted to put a version into full production,” Weir told Top Gear. “Unfortunately, Bertone went bust and it never happened. It meant, however, that mine became a unique example of an Aston Martin, an entirely new production car which consisted of just one vehicle.”

This one-off shooting brake is very significant, then, since it’s the last ever car ever built by Bertone before the company went bankrupt in 2014.

“Part of me would love to see it reproduced but another part likes the idea that it remains a unique one-off as part of automobile and Aston Martin history,” he said. While a regular Aston Martin Rapide S will set you back just over $200,000, its one-off shooting brake sibling is reportedly being sold for around $4 million according to Top Gear.