Aston Martin and Zagato create new Vanquish Concept

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Aston Martin has revealed its latest tie-up with the northern Italian design firm Zagato in the form of the Vanquish Zagato Concept. The new car is being unveiled ahead of its full in-the-flesh debut at this weekend's Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance in Italy.

Autocar notes that the sleek grand tourer is the fifth car produced between the two companies since the partnership between Aston and Zagato began in 1960. The car takes its design inspiration from some of these previous tie-ups, while making use of some of Aston's own new design language tweaks too.

Around the back, the car takes on DB11 styling in the form of the lip spoiler splitting the taillights in two – the rounded lights are similar to the ones used by Zagato on the limited run V12 Vantage the design firm had a hand in five years ago.

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The lights themselves are bladed, like on the recently introduced Vulcan track car, and the lines feeding into the large rear haunch are akin to the ones Aston has penned on its new DB11.

The car was developed at Aston's Gaydon headquarters and designed by a team led by the company's vice president Marek Reichman, alongside the Milan-based team captained by Zagato. Its restyled bodywork is made entirely from carbon fibre.

Car magazine says that one of the most eye-catching details of the redesigned coupe is the "double bubble" roof. It's a classic Zagato feature and was originally used to create more headroom so that drivers could wear racing helmets without bumping the roof. The huge naked carbon rear-diffuser is hard to miss too, with four exhaust exits poking out of it.

Changes on the inside are less dramatic – there are bespoke seat trims with the Zagato logo embossed into them, as well as new carbon fibre finishes and bronzed dials and vents.

Under the bonnet, the Zagato Vanquish gets more power than Aston's standard entry. Power produced by the 5.9-litre V12 is up from 568bhp to 591bhp, though Zagato hasn't released any performance figures. Other dynamic changes include the dampers – they've been retuned to be stiffer.

Despite being a concept car, Aston's Zagato tie-ups are usually produced in extremely low numbers, says Auto Express. If it goes on sale, you can expect a price tag way beyond the £194,000 asking price of a normal Vanquish.