Aston Martin announces stunning drop-top Zagato coupe

23 August, 2016

Stunning is a word I try not to use often. It’s not that manly, but sometimes it’s the only word to describe vehicles as beautiful as the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato coupe. The V12 engine is a stunning piece of machinery, too, with 592hp, a beautiful noise, and the capability to propel the luxury coupe to 100kph in only 3.7 seconds. 

Aston Martin has confirmed this weekend that the Zagato will be accompanied in the showroom by a topless friend named Volante. We’re not complaining either, the Zagato Volante coupe is a thing of pure beauty. It will, however, only be sold in limited numbers, stopping at 99 vehicles. 

Alongside the topless roof line, the convertible will receive touches that the hardtop will not. The interior will feature ‘Z’ embossing on the headrests and doors, and a ‘Z’ quilt pattern will be a standard feature on both the doors and seats. On the outside of the Volante you’ll see bladed LED technology as seen on the Vulcan supercar, and lower carbon-fibre sills. 

This is one Aston that, in years to come, will become a stout future classic. Buy one now folks, before the pricing gets out of control. Well, if you have the coin that is! 

Images: Aston Martin

Lancia Stratos – building a winner

On his own, and later with his wife Suzie, Craig Tickle has built and raced many rally cars. Starting in 1988, Craig went half shares in a Mk1 Escort and took it rallying. Apart from a few years in the US studying how to be a nuclear engineer, he has always had a rally car in the garage. When he is not playing with cars, he works as an engineer for his design consulting company.
Naturally, anybody interested in rallying has heard of the Lancia Stratos, the poster child and winner of the World Rally circuit in 1974, ’75, and ’76. Just as the Lamborghini Countach rebranded the world of supercars, so, too, did the Lancia Stratos when it came to getting down and dirty in the rally world.

This could be good news for restoring cars and bikes – but we must be quick!

Our parliament is currently considering a member’s Bill, drawn by ballot, called the ‘Right to Repair’ Bill.
It’s due to go a Select Committee for consideration, and we can make submissions ie say what we think of it, before 3 April this year. It’s important because it will make spare parts and information for doing repairs far more readily available and this should slow the rate at which appliances, toys and so on get sent to landfill.