THE ADVANTAGES OF AN ITALIAN SUIT

While perfection in automotive design is undoubtedly a subjective consideration, it is safe to say that very few cars are regarded with such overwhelmingly positive consensus as the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato. Only a handful of automobiles have so splendidly combined rarity, high-performance engineering specifications, beautiful lightweight coachwork, and competition provenance—all of which are embodied by Newport-Pagnell’s Italian-clothed GT racing car.

By the late 1950s, David Brown’s Aston Martin had grown to unprecedented heights, manufacturing an elegant series of sports saloon production cars, and advancing so far in motorsports competition as to win the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans with the luminary Carroll Shelby. The company’s late-1959 introduction of the DB4 GT model was an attempt to offer privateer customers a racing version of the gentlemanly touring machines, but works team manager John Wyer felt the design did not go far enough to forge a true competitor.

Although the DB4 GT was built on a five-inches-shorter wheelbase chassis equipped with a 30-gallon fuel tank, Girling disc brakes, a close-ratio gearbox, twin-plug ignition, and Weber 45 DCOE carburetors, the car was still too heavy to make much headway in the competitive sports car classes. So, during 1960, Aston Martin explored an arrangement with Zagato to create special racing coachwork for the DB4 GT, which resulted in the DB4 GT Zagato that the company introduced at the 1960 Earls Court Motor Show.

The renowned Ercole Spada, then just 23 years old, penned one of history’s most glorious sports car forms, a brutally muscular yet elegant fastback design that was arguably more striking than any before or since. A newly retuned version of the Tadek Marek-designed inline six-cylinder engine with improved compression now developed 314 horsepower, offering 74 more horses than the original DB4.

Only 19 examples of the beguiling Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato were built, making them far rarer than the Ferrari 250 GT California Spiders and SWB berlinettas they were built to defeat. Now considered among the crème de la crème of the niche’s most spectacular models, bar none, the DB4 GT Zagato is almost never publicly offered, making the availability of the featured car a truly momentous prospect.

0186/R—FROM CHECKERED FLAGS DOWN UNDER TO THE PRIZES OF PEBBLE BEACH

Boasting a Pebble Beach-awarded restoration by a marque specialist, the presence of its matching-numbers engine, and a unique in-period racing career, this breathtaking DB4 GT Zagato takes second stage to none. Chassis number 0186/R is understood to be the 14th car built by date, and the 11th car by sequential chassis numbering. According to the records of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, and as confirmed by a factory build record, this Aston Martin completed assembly in December 1961. Equipped with triple Weber 45 DCOE 4 carburetors, a Powr Lok limited-slip differential, Avon T.S. tires, and a Lucas dynamo, the DB4 GT Zagato was finished in Desert White paint over a red leather interior.

A day after completion the Aston Martin was dispatched to its selling agent, Tozer Kemsley & Millbourne (aka Vulcan Investments Ltd) on behalf of its first owner, an Australian quarrying magnate and Peterbilt truck franchisee named Laurie O’Neill. The car is the only DB4 GT Zagato to originally be sold into Australian ownership, and upon arrival Down Under it was quickly entered into local competition events for the 1962 season.

The Aston Martin made its debut in late February 1962 at Calder, where three-time Australian Grand Prix winner Doug Whiteford pushed the car to 1st in the GT Handicap. A week later Whiteford won the GT Scratch and the South Pacific GT Championship at Longford, where the DB4 GTZ was clocked at 141 mph in the flying eighth-mile in the GT race, and 145 mph in a sports car race. Laurie O’Neill then took the wheel himself at the Silverdale Hillclimb mid-June, roaring to a class win. Shortly thereafter the Zagato attained a greater level of renown when it was featured on the cover of the August 1962 issue of Sports Car World, a major Australian automotive magazine.

In mid-October the Aston Martin’s Australian campaign continued with a 3rd place finish at Warwick Farms while driven by Ian Geoghegan, the future five-time winner of the Australian Touring Car Championship. O’Neill earned the DB4 GT Zagato a win at the Silverdale Hillclimb one week later, before Geoghegan finished the season with 1st and 2nd place finishes in the GT Scratch races at Katoomba.

Around this time, Australian racing regulations were adjusted to permit temporary-roof cars, allowing more purpose-built racecars like the Maserati 300 S and the Jaguar D-Type to compete in the GT class. Facing what would have been an unfair disadvantage, the Aston Martin was withdrawn from any further racing, thus spelling the known conclusion of 0186/R’s motorsport career. Fortunately, it had avoided the worst ravages of wheel-to-wheel competition, surviving with its engine and Zagato bodywork intact.

In 1963 the Aston Martin was sold to Colin Hyams of Glen Iris, New South Wales, and four years later he returned the car to the Newport-Pagnell factory for service attention. After being refinished in red paint, the DB4 GTZ was publicly presented at the 1968 Melbourne Motor Show. Shortly thereafter the Zagato was sold to Alex Copland of Melbourne, and he had the car repainted in the original shade of white. According to a local account, Mr. Copland soon put the DB4 into extended storage, and it remained parked for close to 20 years.

Factory records suggest that by May 1988 the Aston Martin was owned by Nicholas Springer of Gstaad, Switzerland. In 1993 the DB4 GTZ was acquired by Scottish collector G.K. Speirs through the auspices of British restoration specialist John Goldsmith, and Goldsmith then comprehensively restored the car. During refurbishment the decision was made to prepare the Zagato for vintage racing events, and Mr. Goldsmith and his wife, the ex-racing driver Gillian Fortesque-Thomas, were chosen to run 0186/R on British RAC circuits.

The Goldsmiths campaigned the car at some of the niche’s best-known events during the remainder of the 1990s, including runs at Snetterton, Silverstone, and Goodwood. In March 1998 the Aston Martin returned to Australia to participate in a demonstration at the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne, before showing at the Classic Adelaide 500 and winning the Colingrove Hillclimb.

Circa 2000 the DB4 GT Zagato was sold to the well-known American marque enthusiast Peter Read, and he commissioned the Aston Martin specialist Richard Williams to completely restore the car. This included a return to Milan, where its original coachbuilder, Zagato, restored its bodywork and chassis. After completing refurbishment in early 2002, the Aston Martin was presented at the Louis Vuitton Concours d’Elegance, where it was named Best of Show. Numerous class awards followed at shows including the 2007 Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza, and the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The car was also shown at the 2013 The Quail–A Motorsports Gathering.

In December 2015 the Aston Martin was offered at RM Sotheby’s flagship New York City sale and acquired by the current owner. Following some restoration work in early 2016 by the Aston Martin specialist Kevin Kay Restorations in Redding, California, the DB4 GTZ was presented at the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, winning 3rd place in the Postwar Sports Racing class.

Unsatisfied with this result, the owner returned 0186/R to Kevin Kay Restorations in October 2018 for an intensive 10-month refinishing. Conducted with the well-known independent Aston Martin researcher and writer Stephen Archer in consultation, this process focused on the correct presentation of myriad important details, aiming for the highest possible level of historical accuracy. Numerous components and hardware were properly refinished, and myriad authentic trim elements were sourced, like the correct window handles and spare wheel hold-down elements. The coachwork was treated to a bare-metal refinish in correct Aston Martin Sanction II Works Green; the car’s nose was exactingly corrected by Kevin Kay Restorations, and it is otherwise understood to retain its original Zagato coachwork—particularly notable for a model that was aggressively raced in period, often with punishing results.

In August 2019 the fruits of this extra finishing were realized with a return to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Competing in the special Zagato Centennial Postwar class, 0186/R took a class win and the Vitesse Elegance Trophy, and it was one of only four finalists to be considered for the coveted Best of Show award. Considering that a post-war car has only won Pebble Beach twice in the last 70 years, this distinction was a tremendous accomplishment.

Offered with a restored original owner’s manual, and copiously documented with factory build record copies, period racing records and photos, book excerpts, restoration invoices and photos, and a production certificate from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, this exquisite sports car legend is desirably equipped with its matching-numbers engine and still wears predominantly original bodywork by Zagato of Milan.

Such a magnificently restored example of a motoring legend would crown even the finest collection of historically significant automobiles. Its current availability constitutes a fleeting window into the realm of possibility, offering dedicated enthusiasts the chance of a lifetime to acquire one of the niche’s incontestable Holy Grails.