A year since the designs were first shown to the world, bespoke car builder R-Reforged has announced that its Aston Martin V12 Zagato Heritage Twins are to go on sale in 19 pairs, with production for each now able to commence at its newly opened facility in Warwick. The Switzerland-based firm, which created Ian Callum's redesigned Vanquish 25 last year, is building the Speedster and coupe in Britain to celebrate a century of Zagato, evolving the design of the 2011 Zagato under license from Aston Martin.
Remarkably, at least one of the donor V12 Vantages to make each car is said to have zero miles on the clock, with both left- and right-hand drive, as well as automatic and manual examples, to be used. The work to turn them into Heritage Twins is, as the pictures suggest, extensive, with the all-carbon fibre skin being altered to embody a new take on the original Zagato design alongside new centre-lock 19-inch wheels. The 5.9-litre engine has been uprated to produce 600hp, too, 83hp more than the 2011 V12 Zagato and 23hp more than the Vantage S.
While much of the styling looks familiar from earlier cars (there's no mistaking that front end and the backend is clearly related to Zagato's 2011 creation) the details are where much of the design effort has been focussed. That rear deck now sports an active spoiler to aid with performance, while the Speedster's shedding of the coupe's double bubble roof allows room for two rear buttresses behind the cockpit. Inside, the old Vantage cabin gets a sprucing up, with new materials and colours, including gold and platinum.
Exact specifications for the cars' details will, of course, be unique to each buyer. Upon placing their order, customers will receive an invite to work with Aston Martin's designers at its Swiss St Gallen facility in Niederwil. Buyers can then go and see their car be built at R-Reforged's newly constructed, 30,000 square foot production facility, which adds a UK base to its existing Swiss and German operations.
While the Heritage models aren't being produced by Aston Martin, they certainly are priced with manufacturer's customer base in mind. Each pair is up for £1.75 million excluding taxes, which is £2.1m plus VAT in Britain. Suffice to say that while a Lawrence Stroll-led Aston Martin will be honing its focus on core models, third-party brands like R-Reforged are ready and waiting to pick up where it left off with the bespoke stuff. Expect production to begin in the summer, coronavirus permitting.
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