I’m sure you all know Zagato based in Milan, Italy. This prestigious design company has been founded back in 1919 and they have been creating some of the most beautiful and highly collectible cars ever since … using well known base from Abarth, Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Ferrari and naturally Lamborghini to name but a few.
In fact back in the mid Sixties we already saw the result of a collaboration between Zagato and Lamborghini in the shape of the 3500GTZ that was unveiled at the 1965 London Motor Show, some sources state only one was built while other talk about two units of this special V12 GT that was based on the first Lamborghini production model the 350GT, however Zagato removed 10cm from the original chassis and totally changed the appearance of this classic Bull.
It would take 30 years to see a new Zagato concept using Lamborghini parts … this time in the shape of the 1996 Raptor based on a Diablo VT chassis showing a very innovative idea for the canopy, the Zagato Raptor could be a closed coupé model that was easily converted into a barchetta style car be fitting a different canopy … two for the price of one.
By the late Nineties the Lamborghini Diablo was bound to be replaced by a successor, and in 1998 Zagato came up with the L147, also called the Super Diablo or Canto … a very round design for the V12 flagship that was rejected along the way and replaced by the Murciélago designed by Luc Donckerwolcke … in fact at least three Canto were built, not all to original Zagato specs but still very impressive nonetheless, one of them has been seen in the Zagato museum, an evolution is on display at the factory museum in Sant’Agata … and a third one has apparently been sold to a collector …
Now, 15 years later, a new chapter seems to be written to the history of Zagato and Lamborghini … rumor has it the Milanese company is preparing a brand new design based on the Lamborghini Aventador to be shown at the 2014 Geneva Auto Show.
Zagato is even contemplating a very limited production run of 9 units on the Lamborghini Aventador Zagato (didn’t we see that number recently too … oh yes, the Veneno Roadster is also being built only 9 times … at 3,3 million Euro each).
With the angular styling of the Lamborghini Aventador and the well-known, rounder design of recent Zagato models it will be very interesting to see how they will modify the V12 flagship … most likely the engine part will remain the 700hp unit we already know, Zagato will probably concentrate on styling alone, both inside and outside … perhaps we’ll see a kind of retro style Aventador emerge as Zagato usually goes ‘back to the origin’ of the company they take the basis from … an Aventador with Miura influences?
No firm details are available at this moment, but according to sources close to Zagato the project is already approved and work is on the way to show this new Raging Bull in Switzerland in a few months … if it will attract the interest of 9 wealthy customers to own a very special Lamborghini Aventador remains to be seen …