To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the beautiful batch of five 250 GT based Zagato Coupes built between 1956 and 1959, a prominent Japanese collector commissioned Zagato to create a modern day version. 'Project Zero' commenced in 2005. As the base for the project the Ferrari 575M 'Maranello' was chosen. The Ferrari 575 GTZ was revealed two months later at Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este.
At Zagato the donor 575M Maranello had been completely stripped down and fitted with a brand new body and lavish leather interior. Constructed completely from aluminium the new coach-work featured many cues inspired by the first of the five 250 GT Zagatos. Among them was, of course, Zagato's trademark 'double bubble' roof but also the prominent front and rear fenders and the big grille. More modern touches included the front and tail lights, which were integrated in the fenders.
Additional customers had expressed an interest in an open version of the Ferrari Zagato. Because of the additional chassis strength required, the 'standard' 575M Maranello was no longer suitable. Instead Zagato picked the slightly earlier 550 Barchetta of which just 448 had been built. Dubbed the '550 Barchetta Zagato', the new machine was visually very similar to its fixed head counterpart. It is believed that only three Barchettas were built from 2008 to 2010. Each model is powered by a naturally aspirated 5.474 liter V12 engine that produces 485 bhp. (ultimatecarpage.com)
(Photos from coachbuild.com & bozhdynsky.com)