Unveiled at the 1960 London Motorshow, this was Aston Martin’s ultimate development of their DB4 GT model. Zagato took the DB4 GT and created a smaller, more aerodynamic, super lightweight car for Aston Martin to attack the might of Ferrari with.

Finished new in Aston Martin’s racing colours of Almond Green, chassis 0184 was retained by the factory for nine months and used as their test and development car. At the time, Aston Martin were working very closely with Dunlop on the development of disc brakes. Aston Martin agreed to sell 0184 to Dunlop to continue this work, who completed about 25,000 miles in it until they sold it in 1967. The new owner, Rob Owen, was well known in Aston Martin circles having already owned a DB3S, and was soon competing in a variety of events throughout the 1967 and 1968 seasons. It then joined the significant collection of Sir Anthony Bamford, who asked Owen to race it at the 1969 Birkett six-hour relay race at Silverstone for him.

Sir Anthony Bamford had the Zagato extensively overhauled by the factory, and the next owner, Ernie Miller – again, a well known figure in the Aston Martin Owners Club racing scene, having regularly competed in his DB4 GT’s –decided that 0184 was too original to race, so entered it into the 1970 AMOC Fort Belvedere autumn concours, where it won its class. Miller used 0184 as a road car until 1975, until 0184’s next custodian once again started regularly racing the Zagato in AMOC events all the way through until 1980.

More recently, 0184 has been maintained by marque specialist RS Williams and has competed in The Goodwood Revival. Like its arch rival, the Ferrari 250 GTO, DB4 GT Zagato’s were a superb dual purpose GT car, as capable on the race circuit as it was on the road, and as such 0184 has also competed on numerous tours and rallies including the Gstaad Classic.

Still retaining its achingly original interior, 0184 is one of the most original examples of Aston Martin’s prettiest ever GT car.