People
Zagato chief executive and design collaborator on the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato
The record
Third-generation chief executive of Zagato who, with Marek Reichman's team and a Milan studio, collaborated on the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Concept shown at Villa d'Este in 2016 and on the four-body family of 325 cars that followed.
He was born in Milan in April 1960, the son of Elio Zagato and Laura Gianazza and the grandson of Ugo Zagato, who founded the carrozzeria in 1919. He meant to become a veterinarian. At his father's urging he read economics and commerce at Bocconi University in Milan. In 1982, after Elio's heart attack, he set aside a London finance offer and agreed to look after the works for six months. He stayed at the firm.
One of his first acts was a financial audit: each Maserati Spyder then on the line was losing money. In 1986 he brought Dassault-derived CAD-CAM into the firm through Forma & Tecnologia. Aston Martin Lagonda bought a 50 per cent share as Vantage Zagato production got under way, around the time of the Alfa Romeo SZ contract. In the 1990s he closed the production line. Judging at Pebble Beach from 1992, he recast the house as an atelier for collectible small series rather than a body plant.
The Aston Martin partnership, first made with the DB4 GT Zagato, was renewed after a meeting at Pebble Beach with Jacques Nasser of Ford. In May 2016 the Vanquish Zagato Concept appeared at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, designed with Marek Reichman's Gaydon team and Andrea Zagato's Milan studio and engineered at Gaydon. The four-body family — Coupé, Volante, Speedster and Shooting Brake — was later capped at 325 cars. Aston Martin's 2017 release names him Zagato's chief executive and quotes him as collaborating closely on the design.
In the 1990s he shut Zagato's production line, which was losing money, and sold CAD-CAM work instead. The firm became an atelier for one-offs and small series, with the manufacturer's own line — as at Gaydon for the Vanquish Zagato — building the cars.
In 1986 he brought Dassault-derived CAD-CAM into Zagato through Forma & Tecnologia. He has said the Alfa Romeo SZ was the first car developed entirely on that system, a transfer from aircraft practice.
He treats Zagato as a second design language crossed with the manufacturer's. On the Vanquish Zagato that meant Reichman's Gaydon studio and his Milan team sharing the body, then building the car on the standard Vanquish line.
The house
Credited through Zagato.
In the register
The files above are the register's own record of this name. The people index holds everyone the register credits.
In their words
“Collaborating closely on the design of four complimentary, yet completely different Vanquish Zagatos has been an incredibly exciting challenge. I'm proud to continue the story my grandfather started and thrilled that our partnership with Aston Martin continues to realise such exciting cars.”
Andrea Zagato · Aston Martin newsroom, 15 August 2017
