An Aston Martin is already a rare sight in most parts of the world, but when you add the famous design house Zagato into the mix, you end up with a very special car indeed, like this 2002 Aston Martin DB AR1, with a redesigned body by Zagato in their usual ’round’ design language, and strictly limited to just 99 units worldwide.
The base for this extraordinary Italian-inspired Zagato special was the Aston Martin DB7, a model that was ending its career by the early 2000s, so it was time to create a kind of swansong version, first up was the DB7 Zagato, a coupe version with amazing styling, like a ‘double bubble’ roof we’ve seen often on Zagato models over the decades before this one … production of the DB7 Zagato was also limited to just 99 units for the global market, after this coupe Aston Martin had Zagato create the DB AR1, for American Roadster One, and while the latter was also limited to just 99 units, it was only available for the USA market at that time.
But it got even better, the Aston Martin DB AR1 was a topless V12-powered car, and I mean that literally, there is no roof whatsoever on this car, no folding canvas top, no emergency roof panels, nothing, you and your passenger are out in the elements with just a windshield and some raised bodywork behind the two seats when driving, that’s it, a pure roadster feeling, this car was specifically meant for driving in a hot climate with little to no risk of getting caught in a rain storm of any kind, and to make it really exclusive, the MSRP back in 2003 was a staggering $250,000, a car for the purists I guess.
But Aston Martin did consider a rainy situation … a little, there is a kind of rain cover that came with these cars … with suction cups to keep it in place while being parked, so you could protect the beautiful leather interior from being rained upon, but under no circumstances were you allowed to drive with this makeshift roof in place, especially since we are talking about a 5.9-Liter V12 car that comes with a manual transmission putting 435 hp to the rear wheels, acceleration from 0 to 60 takes about 4 seconds, this is a luxury roadster, not a supercar.
Before you head over to the listing for this specific car, yes it is for sale at Cars&Bids, make sure to take a look at the video below:
