RE: Spotted: Aston Martin DB7 special
Discussion
B10 said:
Great styling work by Keith Helfet on the original stillborn Jaguar F type resulted in the DB7 with some tweaks by Ian Callum. However the DB7 has much XJS underneath whereas the F type was based upon the XJ40. Keith's work is often ignored and Mr Callum, in my opinion, gets too much of the credit. Discuss
If the Jaguar R-Coupe concept (IMO even sexier than any AM) wasn't a Callum design (and I suspect it wasn't quite as much as he took credit for) you may be spot-on. He couldn't take all the credit from Henrich Fisker for the AMs; The XF and XJ are good if not very resolved. The XK was derivative. The new F-Type seems to lack much subtlety at all. So what else? - the Cosworth Escort? Grafting Mazda parts onto other's designs? His "Persian-rug" attitude to dropping a deliberate clanger in each design (XK headlamps, XJ C-Pillars etc.) is just conceited.
KH otoh - XJ41, XJ220, XK180, XK8, F-Type, etc. He sure could make'm curvy!
Yep, that Zagato is not attractive. See one most days running around Regents park - shocking looking thing. However I still remember very clearly my friend's father rolling up to school in a brand new DB7 just after they were launched and I could not believe it - what a beaut.
However, to my eyes, time has been rather unkind to the DB7 shape.
However, to my eyes, time has been rather unkind to the DB7 shape.
andyps said:
I did! But I know I couldn't afford to run an Aston, the Jag is bad enough.
My DB7 Vantage cost a lot less to run than my XKR (2004/4.2), the Aston was better built and the components more suited to the car.My DB9 has been flawless from a relaibility perspective - Aston have pretty much nailed it these days.
Also the Aston was just more... special. A subjective thing, but it counts nevertheless.
Moving to Australia in less than a year, and the temptation to go to the UK, buy a Maserati 3200 and bring it with me is growing.....and if im fair it was king kong godzilla sized beforehand. Christ I want one, LHD is just too rich for me sadly. That or a TVR, I think top off V8 burble would be improved by adding a beach and a few Aussie women 
When I picked up my then brand new DB7 3.2 Volante from Aston Martin in Mayfair the bloody salesman whispered in my ear that I should keep the auto box in S3 because the box was crap. I sold it after one year and bought a one year old 550 Maranello instead. Chalk and cheese. The DB7 3.2 is lovely to look at. But I wouldn't touch it at any price if you're serious about driving.
Difficult.
The prospect of buying an Aston for sub-20k money is tempting. Then again, the overall shape is a bit 90ies GT - as in 456GT, with the bulbeous door windows, lacking the more elegant shape of the DB9. And the interior does not compare well to the XK8, even/especially in its standard walnut version (the XKR piano finish was worse). I often think of the DB7 as a sort of "precedessor" to the much more coherent XK8.
And, yes, it is an Aston. The badge says so. Still - when I told my wife the other day when we saw one parked in Mayfair, she nodded. A nod of "I have heard you. If you say so..." not her "I want it" nod she makes when she sees a Vantage, a Serie III Jaguar or a Corniche.
If you delete the badges and replace them with Toyota or Ford badges....
The prospect of buying an Aston for sub-20k money is tempting. Then again, the overall shape is a bit 90ies GT - as in 456GT, with the bulbeous door windows, lacking the more elegant shape of the DB9. And the interior does not compare well to the XK8, even/especially in its standard walnut version (the XKR piano finish was worse). I often think of the DB7 as a sort of "precedessor" to the much more coherent XK8.
And, yes, it is an Aston. The badge says so. Still - when I told my wife the other day when we saw one parked in Mayfair, she nodded. A nod of "I have heard you. If you say so..." not her "I want it" nod she makes when she sees a Vantage, a Serie III Jaguar or a Corniche.
If you delete the badges and replace them with Toyota or Ford badges....
I know someone that has a Zagato and has owned it since new....personally I really like it but I can see that it's a bit of a marmite car. One thing that is much better than a "normal" DB7 is the interior...the leather in this guys car still smells incredible 10 years on and just looks superb. It's the dark chocolate brown like in the images on this page http://www.astonmartin.com/heritage-cars/db7-zagat... for some bizarre reason a lot of people seemed to specify other colours some of which look s
t.
t. £15 k a bargain just to have a DB7 sat on the driveway and look out the window at it every day..When I lived up town I used to strategically park my 968 so the upper neighbour would have to park his DB7 in view of my living room window. That Zagato is criminal. Ugly compared to the standard car, but then so is anything really.. The fact it is an Aston and in limited numbers is all that goes for it. A very expensive Fugly XJS
Cheib said:
I know someone that has a Zagato and has owned it since new....personally I really like it but I can see that it's a bit of a marmite car. One thing that is much better than a "normal" DB7 is the interior...the leather in this guys car still smells incredible 10 years on and just looks superb. It's the dark chocolate brown like in the images on this page http://www.astonmartin.com/heritage-cars/db7-zagat... for some bizarre reason a lot of people seemed to specify other colours some of which look st.
Absolutely. If Zagato produced something uncontroversial and undistinctive, no-one would take notice and there would be little point in the coachbuilder's art. They are meant to be unusual. I think the DB7 Zagato and the Pininfarina Ferrari SP12 are great, but I'm no fan of the McLaren X1 or the Pininfarina Ferrari SP1. I have an opinion on all of them, and that is surely part of the point; these are not high volume cars, so they do not expect to sell large numbers of units of them.t. If you look at a real DB7 Zagato from a few angles you will soon notice the fascinating shapes of the Z shape graphic where the rear window meets the side glass, coupled with the Zagato trademark double bubble roof which continues down the rear window. Dramatic. The downwards-opening original-Mini style bootlid is also an original touch. It's meant to be a styling statement. You don't find catwalk clothing at M&S.
As for the original DB7, I remember when this came out at the same time as the F355. Then as now, the DB7 looked worse and worse the closer you came to it, whereas the 355 looks as good now as then and has few rough edges however close you get. Ugly 4 spoke steering wheel on later models not great, but that's about it. The original DB7 always seemed to be a 100 - yard car. I remember first seeing the 6 cylinder DB7 and marvelling that they could not even go to the trouble of pretending it was properly hand made, and have the badge set into the bonnet as the handbuilt cars always did- it just sat proud, stuck onto the bonnet. Produced at the same time, the E36 3 series which was hardly expensive by comparison, as an example, has a nicely set-in badge on the bonnet. Aston did correct this (and many other things) on the DB7 Vantage, which seemed to be so much more of a proper car than the early DB7.
yeti said:
My DB7 Vantage cost a lot less to run than my XKR (2004/4.2), the Aston was better built and the components more suited to the car.
My DB9 has been flawless from a relaibility perspective - Aston have pretty much nailed it these days.
Also the Aston was just more... special. A subjective thing, but it counts nevertheless.
Thanks, interesting but I really didn't need to know that!! I only have the XK8 rather than the R though so I will keep thinking that makes a difference.My DB9 has been flawless from a relaibility perspective - Aston have pretty much nailed it these days.
Also the Aston was just more... special. A subjective thing, but it counts nevertheless.
Agree about the subjective, having not had the Jag all that long it still feels special to me anyway.
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