Aston Martins often prove capable of tangling with the likes of Ferraris and Lamborghinis. But one thing that sets them apart is that, while their Italian counterparts often place their engines amidship, Astons are always front-engined. Right?

Well, discounting their Lola-built LMP1 Le Mans racer, everything that rolls out of the factory in Gaydon – much as they did before at Newport Pagnell – has its engine up front, even with supercars as exotic as theOne-77, V12 Zagato and Vanquish. That’s where HBH comes in.

The Danish firm, as we initially reported back in May and followed up on in July, takes its initials from the last names of its brain trust: Jesper Hermann, Christian Brandt and Torben Hartvig, who between them have a wealth of niche supercar experience to impart. For their latest project, the trio teamed up to produce the vehicle you see here: the Aston Martin Bulldog GT.

Aside from the engine being place behind the cabin, the Bulldog GT features unique aluminum bodywork that looks suitably Aston-like and accommodates placing the engine in the middle. And in case the 6.0-liter V12 lifted from the Vantage weren’t powerful enough, HBH has bolted on two superchargers to boost output up to 666 horsepower. That’s said to be enough for a 3.9-second run to 62 mph and a 186-mph top end, but we wouldn’t be surprised to find those numbers conservative.

Perhaps the most intriguing bit is that HBH is not just selling the car, but half of its production rights along with it. That means the buyer can choose whether to keep it as a one-off or put it into limited production and reap the rewards. Sounds like an interesting business model to us. Take a closer look at the finished product in our gallery of images and draw your own conclusions.

It’s official, ladies and gents: the Aston Martin V12 Zagato is entering production. Still, we wouldn’t expect to see one down at the local dealership anytime soon. That’s because, as expected, only 150 examples will be made, each fetching a whopping £330,000. That’s before taxes, and by current conversion rates, it comes in around $525,000.

To put that into perspective, consider the following: over in the UK, Lamborghini’s flagship Murcielago LP670-4 SV cost about £220k (roughly $350k), the new Aventador that succeeds it, slightly less. The Ferrari 599 GTO – its current top-of-the-line model – goes for £305,000 (around $490k).

In other words, the latest Aston is more expensive than just about anything this side of the seven-figure league populated by the likes of the Bugatti Veyron, Pagani Huayra, and Aston’s own One-77, which stands as the only offering in the company’s range that’s still more expensive than the Zagato. Everything else is less than half the price being asked for this latest coachbuilt special.

Those are some big figures, but the V12 Zagato is definitely big on beauty. Before it hits those lucky few dealerships, we’re expecting to see a few more road-car compromises to the almost-race-ready concours show car and the competition-spec version that subsequently tackled the Nürburgring. You know, stuff like a full interior (likely to be swathed in Alcantara), electric windows instead of these sliding plastic jobs and maybe a nose that’ll be able to get up your driveway without losing its carbon-fiber splitter. So watch this space for those pre-production photos and check out the existing galleries in the meantime, along with the press release after the jump.

Few collaborations have set the presses and Intertubes alight quite like the Aston Martin V12 Zagato. Rekindling a five-decade-old partnership, the British purveyor of luxury GTs and the Italian design house unveiled their latest collaboration on the shores of Lake Como to rave reviews. And keen to show it’s not just a pretty face, Aston Martin then took the beauty-and-the-beast machine to the Nürburgring to race.

Just the other day, we brought you news of Aston’s apparently inadvertent (or decidedly low-key) confirmation that the V12 Zagato would reach the market, however limited in production. Now, reports indicate just how few will be built – and how expensive they’ll be.

According to Dutch publication AutoWeek.nl, Aston will build only 150 examples of the V12 Zagato, each with a price tag of £330,000. If accurate, that would place the Zagato at nearly twice the purchase price of theDBS, and about two and a half times as expensive as the V12 Vantage on which it’s based.

By either account – direct conversion or relative price from Aston’s U.S. line-up – that comes out to about $500,000 based on current conversion rates. Whether the rare beauty of the Zagato is worth a pair of top-of-the-line production Astons is open for debate, but we have no doubt Gaydon will have little trouble selling every last one.

Take a look at Aston Martin’s website and you may notice a new model listed in its portfolio. Slotted in between the One-77 and the DBS sits the V12 Zagato, effectively confirming the new model’s place in the company’s production lineup and accompanied, in the fourth slide showcasing the model, by the statement “only a strictly limited run of road going cars will be built”.

The V12 Zagato is based on the Aston Martin V12 Vantage, but features fresh bodywork penned by the namesake Italian design house. The car celebrates of fifty years of collaboration between Aston Martin and Zagato, dating back to the original DB4 GT.

Following the debut of the concept at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in May and the model’s racing debut at the Nürburgring, this is the closest thing to an actual production confirmation we’ve seen so far. Given where Aston has placed the model among its existing products, a very high purchase price is probable. We look forward to further official confirmation regarding the V12 Zagato’s market availability.

It’s the oldest journalism adage in the book. Dog bites man, not news. Man bites dog, now that’s news. So what does this have to do with cars? We’ll tell you.

Whereas most sports racers are converted for the purpose from existing, commercially available road cars, once in a while we see a car going the opposite way. Take the Lexus LFA, for example, which was first unveiled in concept form, then went racing at the Nürburgring, and only afterwards hit the market.

Now Aston Martin is following the same path with the V12 Zagato. The show car was first unveiled at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, and was fielded in the VLN race at the ‘Ring this weekend – while the Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix were under way elsewhere – before the final street version is released.

How the V12 Zagato actually performed hardly matters, as this initial outing was strictly for developmental purposes. But we’ll tell you anyway. It finished just five laps before it kicked the bucket. But that’s alright, because other works entries from Gaydon fared better (including a second-in-class finish for one of the factory’s V8 Vantages), and the Zagato racer will be back next month, in tandem, for a full-on assault. We’ll be watching.

Unfortunately Aston Martin has yet to release any high-res photos of the Zagato doing its thing, but we’ll keep an eye out and update you if and when it does. In the meantime you can follow the jump for the official factory release and check out the existing images in the gallery below.