Zagato

Zagato of Milan, founded by Ugo Zagato in 1919, built lightweight aluminium bodies based on aircraft methods. British marques with Zagato bodies include Aston Martin, AC, Bristol, Frazer Nash and Jaguar.

Ugo Zagato was born in Gavello near Rovigo in 1890 and began coachbuilding in 1919 after leaving Officine Aeronautica Pomilio, hoping to bring aeronautical techniques to cars. He built light structures with an aluminium frame, like an aircraft fuselage. In the 1920s and 1930s his bodies on the Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 and 1750 won the Mille Miglia repeatedly, and Bianchi, Fiat, Isotta Fraschini, Lancia, Maserati and OM all tried Zagato bodies. Thirty-six Zagato-bodied cars ran in the 1938 Mille Miglia.

In the 1950s, with the Gran Turismo category conceived in 1949, AC, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Bristol, Ferrari, Fiat, Frazer Nash, Jaguar, Maserati, Porsche and Renault all wore Zagato GT bodies. The Terrazzano plant also assembled the Lancia Beta Sport Spider and the Bristol 412 Targa. Later, the Aston Martin Vantage Zagato (50 built) and Volante Zagato (33 built) were the highest expression of this period. In the 2000s the company built special Aston Martins and the AC 378 GTZ, and consolidated its special relationship with Aston Martin with the Centennial V-Max, Vanquish and “Cento” collections. Its design centre is at Terrazzano, near Rho.