Bodied by Zagato Part 4 : Aston Martin

After contracting Italy's Touring Superleggera to design the DB4 saloon (really a coupe) and launching the successful production car in late 1958, David Brown's Aston Martin team began to consider a competition-oriented version of the car to compete with Ferrari's 250GT.  Their first effort was the DB4 GT, still with Touring's DB4 body style, but 5" shorter than the DB4 on a 93" wheelbase, and with covered headlights.  It appeared in fall of 1959, but Aston had another surprise in store.  It was the still-lighter DB4 GT Zagato, with alloy bodywork designed and built by that firm.  It appeared a year later, in 1960 at the London Motor Show.

The shell seemed even more tightly contoured around the drivetrain, cabin and chassis frame than the alloy bodies of the other DB4s.  More curvaceous than other Astons, Ercole Spada's design for Zagato was, in a word, sexier...

As with all hand-built cars, detail differenced abounded. The green Zagato above has a lower nose than the red car, and sliding side windows to save weight.  The original plan was to build 25 of the Zagato-bodied GT, in addition to 75 DB4 GTs.  Most sources say that only 19 were built, with 4 "Sanction II" cars built at the request of Aston chief Victor Gauntlett in 1991, and 2 Sanction III cars by 2000, to use up the chassis numbers for the originally planned production.  Though those later cars offered 4.2 liter engines, the original DB4 GTs all had the 3.7 liter twin-plug version of the twin overhead-cam inline six designed by Tadek Marek.  Standard DB4s made do with a single spark plug per cylinder...

By the time DB4 GT Zagato production ended in 1961, some cars were built without the covered-headlight feature, which was briefly disallowed in the Italian market.  The left-hand drive car below may have been built for a European client...

Those "re-sanctioned" DB4 GT Zagatos weren't the only Zagato-bodied Aston Martins to appear after the original run of lightweight coupes.  A quarter century after the last DB4 GT rolled out of Zagato's shops, Aston Martin resumed working with Zagato by releasing the first of a limited series of Vantage V8 GT Zagatos, about 5 inches shorter than the standard Vantage but on the same 102.8" wheelbase.  Even though the fashion for wedge shapes was fading when the first car appeared in 1986, designer Giuseppe Mittino modeled the new car on the wedge theme, fronted by rectilinear lights flanking a square-rigged version of Aston's traditional grille. The only interruption of the downward slope of the bonnet was the hump that cleared the Weber carbs on the 430 hp, 5.3 liter engine.  The greenhouse was airy, with then-fashionable inset "toll-booth" windows and flush glazing.

52 of the coupes were built by the time production ended in 1990, right around the time Zagato was preparing to build those Sanction II versions of their DB4 GTZ...

Because the Zagato coupe exceeded Aston's expectations by selling more than the 50 planned, Aston Martin decided to have Zagato build just over 3 dozen Volante convertibles. Visual differences, beyond the soft top, included concealed headlights and a flush, simulated Aston grille with air intake below, and most significant, a flush bonnet without the power bulge, because of fuel injection replacing the Webers...

Things were quiet on the Zagato front for another dozen years, but Ford's acquisition of Jaguar and Aston Martin produced the DB7, originally with chassis based on Jaguar's XJS and using its AJ6 engine design. The car was a success, with 7,000 eventually built, so Aston decided to offer a more exclusive Zagato version.  Styled by Henrik Fisker and Andrea Zagato, the DB7 Zagato version had a shorter wheelbase (100" vs. 102") and was six inches shorter.  A mix of alloy hood, doors and deck, with steel front fenders, made it lighter than the standard DB7. The only engine was the new Vantage V12 developed by Ford.  99 of the coupes found customers in its only year, 2003, with the 100th car going to Aston Martin's museum...

Aston also offered the AR-1 Zagato the same year.  For some reason, the roadster version reverted to the standard 102" wheelbase.  This wasn't to add extra seats; the AR-1 was strictly a 2-seater car.  And the occupants were likely to get wet in a downpour, as there was no convertible top, only a tonneau cover to cover the seats when parked.  Most of the 99 cars built were sold in California and Florida, though one RHD car was built for the home market...

The impractical AR-1 perhaps foreshadowed the growth in the market for what could be called instant collector cars.  Marek Reichman's design for Aston's One-77, which appeared in 2009 and began production (of 77 examples) was one such, but it wasn't a Zagato product.  The V12 Zagato offered by Aston Martin in 2012-13 was also designed by Reichman, but it carried Zagato's "Z" insignia.  The tightly contoured alloy panels, complete with double-bubble roof, were built by Coventry Prototype Panels, which had bought Zagato in 2011.  Though 101 cars were planned, customer cars amounted to 61, plus 2 racers and another 2 prototypes.  So the V12 Zagato was even more exclusive than the One-77.  This was likely a plus for customers, because in this stratospheric price class, exclusivity had become the whole point...

…as Aston Martin may have discovered when it built a whopping 325 of the carbon fiber bodied Vanquish Zagato from 2016 to 2018. The car was offered in coupe, Volante convertible, Speedster and Shooting Brake styles. One investor guide cautioned subscribers that prices had dropped to only 80% of original list because of the number of cars on the resale market. Pretty though, especially at its debut, when the car was posed at Villa d'Este on the Western shore of Lake Como.

*Footnote:  We took a look at Bertone-bodied Aston DB2s in "The Other Arnolts" ( posted 10-15-16) and the Aston Martin DB4GT Bertone and Ferrari 250 SWB Speciale in "Cousins Where They Meet the Eye (12-26-18).  One of two Touring Superleggera-bodied DBS prototype cars is pictured in "Touring Superleggera Part 2" (Oct. 6, 2020).

Photo Credits

Top thru 3rd:  Linda La Fond  

4th & 5th:  the author

6th & 7th:  bringatrailer.com

8th:  girardo.com

9th thru 11th:  wikimedia

Bottom:  jbrcapital.com

Film Review: Hamaguchi's "Drive My Car"----Secrets and Confessions in a Red Saab

A red 1987 Saab 900 Turbo serves as a refuge for Tokyo stage actor and director Yusuke in Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 2022 Oscar-winning "Drive My Car", based upon a short story by Haruki Murakami.  The vintage left-hand drive car (in a RHD country) from an extinct company doesn't seem like such an odd choice when we see Yusuke and his TV screenwriter wife Oto listening to vinyl records on an old turntable, and observe that while driving, Yusuke listens to cassette tapes of Oto reciting dialog to help him learn his lines. The car serves as a kind of confessional, too, as the couple discusses their decision not to have another child after losing a 4-year old daughter to pneumonia...

Director Hamaguchi throws us into the story without bothering with opening credits; these appear over 40 minutes into the film, after we are already drawn into his themes of secrets and loss. The story darkens after Yusuke has a road accident which his doctor diagnoses as a result of glaucoma, and darkens again when he discovers that Oto's connection to a young TV actor named Koshi is more intimate than she has hinted...

If "Drive My Car" is a road movie, it is partly one about regret for roads not taken.  We see Yusuke drive off into the night rather than engage when Oto asks when they can talk, because there is apparently something she needs to tell him.  After driving around listening to his wife's voice on tape, he returns to discover that she has collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage.  She does not recover. Two years later, an emotionally shut-down Yusuke agrees to direct a production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" in Hiroshima.  An unusual aspect of the production is that dialogue will be delivered in any languages the individual cast members speak; the finalists speak Japanese, Korean, English, and sign, with subtitles for the audience.  Another quirk of the program is that the theater company assigns Yusuke a driver, owing to an accident caused by a cast member in a prior production.  The driver turns out to be Misaki, a woman of 24, whose mastery of impassive inscrutability equals that of Yusuke, who is 47.

The selection of Hiroshima and its environs as a location fits Hamaguchi's theme of loss, and recovery from grief, as well as providing some stunning landscapes for the red car to traverse.

One of the reasons the film draws us in easily is that the performances are so unforced and natural that at times we feel like we're watching a documentary.  So natural that it feels like we're intruding when Oto (Reika Kirishima), tells Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima) a story she's writing while they make love. The story is about a high school girl who sneaks into the home of her unsuspecting crush to leave personal items in his bedroom.  Later in the film, after he's been cast in "Uncle Vanya", TV actor Koshi (Masaki Okada) tells Yusuke that Oto had told him the same story, and that, unlike Yusuke, he knows the ending.  These secrets are revealed, of course, in the back seat of the confessional red Saab, while the imperturbable Misaki (Toko Miura) drives.

An emotional turning point in the film happens when the theater company manager played by Jin Dae-yeon invites the director and driver to dinner at his home. Yusuke doesn't want to intrude, but he realizes the manager has something important to tell him.  It turns out that he's been keeping a secret too...

It's that Lee Yoo-na (played by Park Yu-rim) who has a lead role in the production, delivered in the Korean version of sign, is actually his wife.  After being welcomed by Lee Yoo-na and the couple's cheerful pooch, Yusuke and Misaki sit down with them to converse and enjoy the food.

This conversation is one of the rare moments when Yusuke cracks a smile.  He reveals that Misaki drives so smoothly and skillfully that "when you drive with her, you forget you're in a car."

It's a moment of levity that prepares the characters for more surprises and revelations which should be shared only in general terms, because "Drive My Car" is a suspense movie as well as a road movie.  One development is that the actor playing Uncle Vanya is arrested by the local police, forcing the theater company managers to tell Yusuke he has only two choices: either to play Uncle Vanya himself as he is so familiar with the part, or to close the production down.  We'll leave  you to guess how that turns out...

...because there's more for the protagonists to process than the possible shutdown of the play. Misaki reveals to Yusuke that she has felt guilt and despair since she escaped from a collapsing house during a landslide, and her mother did not.  They travel to snowy Hokkaido in one of the film's last scenes, to the landslide site, in another moment of emotional reckoning.  This movie about a play threatened with a shutdown, a story within a story, was filmed during the pandemic shutdown, with the snow scenes completed in November 2020.

In the film's final scene, we see Misaki shopping in a Korean supermarket.  She places her groceries in the red Saab, and a canine pal emerges from the back seat for a snuggle.  Some have suggested that this indicates that the protagonists have moved on with their lives, and that Yusuke has given Misaki the car.  But director Hamaguchi has given us clues in previous scenes to decode this one.  The cheerful pooch seems to be the same one that attracted Misaki's attention at dinner with the manager and his wife. Our understanding of how this story ends may hinge on whether this is the same dog.

Having viewed these scenes multiple times, I've decided it is indeed the same pooch.  So my interpretation is that the theater troupe has gone to Korea to put on "Uncle Vanya" there.  The Korean-speaking manager and his wife, a member of the cast, would of course make the trip as well.  And Yusuke, with his deteriorating vision, would want to have his driver along, especially as she'd expressed interest in Korea.  This is a more believable explanation for the "same dog" plot turn, because nobody in their right mind would ever give away this dog... 

Photo Credits:  

All photos are from the film, produced by "Drive My Car" Production Committee, C & I Entertainment, Culture Entertainment, and The Match Factory; distributed by Bitters End.

Edsel Ford Had a Better Idea: The First Lincoln Continental

It's too bad we couldn't find a photo showing a 1936 Lincoln Zephyr towing that shiny aluminum Airstream Clipper* trailer at some airfield with a Douglas DC-3 in the background.  Then you'd have an image showing at least 3 of the design landmarks from 1936.  On the automotive scene, there was also Gordon Buehrig's front-drive Cord 810 the same year, but the price difference meant that Ford sold over 10 times as many of designer John Tjaarda's streamlined Lincoln Zephyr, the new mass-produced alternative to the expensive Model K*, which was still priced at and above the Cord level. The Zephyr, like that Lincoln K, offered standard V12 power, but unlike the 60 degree V in the 414 cubic inch K, it was a 90 degree, 267 cubic inch engine based on the Ford V8. Sales were good, considering there was a Great Depression going on, but fell from nearly 30,000 cars in '37 to just over 19,000 in '38.  Henry Ford's son Edsel thought that a sportier Zephyr with European-inspired lines might create some showroom traffic.  Designer Bob Gregorie came up with this prototype in 1939... 

Beyond rear fenders with a bit less slope to their teardrop profile, Edsel's prototype went into production as the 1940 Lincoln Continental.  The photo below shows two details specific to that first model year: the red teardrop-shaped Zephyr badge, and thin vertical bars that overlap the trim surrounding the twin grille openings.  Also, the 1940 Continentals had conventional door handles as shown above; these were replaced by push buttons in 1941.

The 1941 ad below highlights the fleet appearance of unadorned, streamlined forms on the Continental coupe, which was produced in larger numbers than the cabriolet. But production was limited for the two years that preceded misguided efforts to decorate the car and make it look more massive.  In 1940, Lincoln produced 350 coupes and 54 cabriolets.  For 1941 coupe production rose to 850, and there were 400 cabrios.

The Zephyr series received a still more fluid form for 1938, and this '41 coupe model shows off smooth curves and a long deck. There was also a 4 door sedan (the black car in the background below) and a club coupe with more interior space and a shorter deck. The Zephyrs and Continentals comprised the whole Lincoln line for the 1941 model year; the big Model K had been discontinued the previous year.

Above, the blue Zephyr coupe can be compared with the Continental cabriolet from the same year.  The cars share the same chrome-outlined grille detail simplified from the overlapping bars of '40, and the same headlights, parking lights and bumpers.  But Zephyrs didn't get the Continental's push-button exterior door handles until 1942, when production was cut short by the onset of war. That year, a restyle sacrificed the simplicity and grace of the Continental, so we're concentrating on the '40 and '41 cars. 

Zephyr V12 displacement was increased to 292 cubic inches for '40 and '41; the engine was bored out slightly to 305 cubic inches for 1942, but returned to 292 for postwar cars.  Problems with early versions of the Zephyr V12 included overheating caused by small cooling passages, with resulting bore warpage and ring wear. 1948 was the last model year for the V12 Continental, and for any Continental until the Mark II showed up for 1956. The interior of the yellow cabriolet shows off materials typical for upper crust cars of the Forties: simulated wood on the dash, brass-colored trim around the instruments, bakelite switches, and leather seats.  Unlike Fords from these years, the Continental and Zephyr features a one-piece windshield... 

Edsel Ford, the only child of the cranky and eccentric company founder Henry, could not have been aware that his automotive brainchild would become a fixture in stark postwar detective and crime stories (below, Humphrey Bogart takes Lizabeth Scott for a drive in 1947's Dead Reckoning), because he died during that war, in spring 1943. He never saw the heavier-looking, over-chromed postwar version of his favorite car, though the 1942 model was a preview.  And he never had any inkling of the car that would be named after him; a mostly overdecorated land yacht with a horse-collar grille would appear over 14 years after his passing.

*Footnote:  

We featured a history of the Lincoln K Series in "Forgotten Classic:  Lincoln Model K, Not Your Average K-Car", posted Nov. 9, 2017. The Airstream Clipper was featured with other pioneering streamliners in "When Mobile Homes Were Really Mobile:  Bowlus and Airstream", posted July 30, 2017.  And we looked at the 2nd great Continental design, Elwood Engel's 1961, in "When the Sixties Really Began: 1961 Lincoln Continental", posted Nov. 18, 2015.

Photo Credits

Top:  archiveboston.com

2nd:  The Henry Ford (museum)

3rd & 8th:  Volo Automotive Museum

4th:  Ford Motor Company

5th thru 7th:  the author

Bottom:  Columbia Pictures