Aston Martin V12 Zagato hits the racetrack for the first time

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Filed under: Concept Cars, Motorsports, Coupe, Europe, Aston Martin, Racing

It's the oldest journalism adage in the book. Dog bites man, not news. Man bites dog, now that's news. So what does this have to do with cars? We'll tell you.

Whereas most sports racers are converted for the purpose from existing, commercially available road cars, once in a while we see a car going the opposite way. Take the Lexus LFA, for example, which was first unveiled in concept form, then went racing at the Nürburgring, and only afterwards hit the market.

Now Aston Martin is following the same path with the V12 Zagato. The show car was first unveiled at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, and was fielded in the VLN race at the 'Ring this weekend - while the Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix were under way elsewhere - before the final street version is released.

How the V12 Zagato actually performed hardly matters, as this initial outing was strictly for developmental purposes. But we'll tell you anyway. It finished just five laps before it kicked the bucket. But that's alright, because other works entries from Gaydon fared better (including a second-in-class finish for one of the factory's V8 Vantages), and the Zagato racer will be back next month, in tandem, for a full-on assault. We'll be watching.

Unfortunately Aston Martin has yet to release any high-res photos of the Zagato doing its thing, but we'll keep an eye out and update you if and when it does. In the meantime you can follow the jump for the official factory release and check out the existing images in the gallery below.Continue reading Aston Martin V12 Zagato hits the racetrack for the first time

Aston Martin V12 Zagato hits the racetrack for the first time originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 May 2011 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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