The first Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Continuation car — part of the company’s forthcoming DBZ Centenary Collection — is beginning to take shape at its Heritage Division headquarters in Newport Pagnell.

Built to race against Ferrari in the 1960s, the DB4 GT Zagato was a thoroughbred machine, and just 19 were built.

Paul Spires, president of Aston Martin Works, said: “We are bringing all of our hand-craftsmanship and expertise to bear in building these 19 Continuation cars, sympathetically incorporating the very latest engineering advances and performance enhancements, but remaining true to the original design.

Paired with the new beauty that is the stunning DBS GT Zagato, the DB4 GT Zagato Continuation cars that are being handcrafted here at Aston Martin Works are a unique and fitting celebration of the brand’s 60-year love affair with this unmatched Italian automotive style icon.”

Originally built as an evolution of the short-chassis DB4 GT, the DB4 GT Zagato Continuation follows the same recipe, with thin-gauge aluminium body panels dressing a light-weight tubular frame in a chassis optimised for track work.

Beneath the Continuation cars’ bonnet will be a version of the celebrated Tadek Marek-designed straight-six cylinder engine with two spark plugs per cylinder, transmitting about 380bhp to the rear wheels through a four-speed manual transmission and a limited-slip differential.

This latest Continuation car follows the success of the 25 DB4 GT Continuation models sold to collectors in 2017 and precedes what will perhaps be the most ambitious continuation to date: the Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger Edition cars planned for 2020.

The DBZ Century Collection will be priced at £6 million (plus taxes).

First deliveries to customers will commence in the third quarter of 2019 for the DB4 GT Zagato Continuation and in the fourth quarter of 2020 for the DBS GT Zagato.