June 2: Zagato - WOW!

"Wow" is right and in this case not a good "Wow", more like a bow wow, as in a dog. Not a good line on this thing, but the gent beside it looks quite snappy in his sport coat and tie. Who is this dude?
Patience. But, I will tell you that he is Italian and he headed up a very famous Italian design company.

Let's first look at some of his company's other hits(?).

Scary how ugly these cars are and yet, when you see this design company's other works, you'll like me, scratch your head in wonder and think, what the heck went wrong? Did someone take the new blind guy's designs seriously? Not want to hurt his feelings?

The design house in question is the famous Italian company Zagato. When I think of Zagato, two things come to mind, one is gorgeous design and the other is Aston Martin. The cars above are abominations, when compared to something like this.......

Not a bad line to be found. Or this BMW.......

Different and not to everyone's taste, but I like it and it is a huge improvement over what came out of the BMW factory as the Z4. But where Zagato rocks is with Aston Martin. A sampling........

To die for? From the elegant lines of the newer AM Virage coupe and cabrio to the tough, show me the racetrack lines of an earlier Aston. Hard to see in these pics, but both the coupes have the Zagato trademark double bubble roof. I say it's a trademark, but it's not seen on every Zagato design.

You tend toward the more practical side of things, then how about this lovely "wagon" version of the Virage?

Technically speaking a shooting brake, this car is stunning and why it isn't already in Aston Martin showrooms is quite a bit beyond me.

Another strange concoction from the Zagato pen is this Abarth 750 GT..........

A funny little gnome of a car. Sure, it has that signature oddball roof, but little else to be proud of. But by showing this just before the next Aston, you can see how wildly different many of the Zagato designs are........

This beauty is the latest Zagato Aston Martin, the Vanquish, unveiled two weeks ago at the Lake Como Concorso d'Eleganza Ville d'Este (got all that?) Like the Virage, my feeling is just build the darn thing and fight off all those lucky rich folks, who will be beating a path to your door, all the time waving their cheque books. Hey, this one even has the double bubble roof treatment.

Zagato designs. Going from wow to weird, but when all cylinders are firing, it's hard to beat a Zagato design for sheer beauty.

Oh, the guy in the first pic is Elio Zagato. Thought you might like to know.

Until next time......