2014 Pebble Beach: Zagato debuts new custom auto designs

The Zagato coachworks company came to Monterey Car Week, and its famed Concorso Italiano, to premier a few new designs for Italian automobiles.

Taking over a sloped hillside section of green lawn, the car maker featured a line of elegantly designed automotive art.

Cars on display included the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale, Aston Martin DB7 Zagato and V12 Zagato America, Aston Martin DB9 Spyder Centennial Zagato, and two Ferraris -- a 575 GTZ and a 550 Barchetta Zagato.

Also in the mix was a Lamborghini 5-95 Zagato, never before seen in this country, on its way from the Zagato factory in Rho, Italy, to its new owner in America.

The namesake and founder of the historic Italian coachmaker, Ugo Zagato, entered the automoble and aircraft construction and repair business in 1919 when he set up shop in the northern Italian city of Milan.

Among his first jobs was a request from Alfa Romeoto create sleek, lightweight body designs for its line of race cars. The Zagato version of the Alfa 6C 1500 took podiums at the 1927 and 1928 Mille Miglia races.(The Zagato coachworks built the bodies for a striking 36 entrants in the 1938 competition.)

In succeeding decades, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Fiat, Maserati, Jaguar and other companies would hire the design firm to supply race bodies for their automobiles.

The current line-up of cars retails at the high end. The Stradale, for example, goes for just under $700,000.

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