UPDATED: CPP Buys Zagato To Sit Alongside Spyker, Bowler

There’s a rumour circulating that Coventry based CPP has bought Italian automotive design house Zagato.  A rumour because neither CPP or Zagato have said anything.

But CarsUK.net have apparently spotted text on the Zagato website talking about ‘CPP Milan’, referring to the carrozzeria’s base.  We also found mention of Zagato having a base in Coventry, where CPP can be found.  The Zagato.it web domain is also registered to CPP Milan SRL (‘Limited’) and several staff list themselves on professional network LinkedIn as working for Zagato until last August, when they suddenly started doing the same job for CPP Milan…  So it looks like CPP does now own Zagato and has done for nearly a year.  Who knew?

If you are a car nut then Zagato will need no introduction, as they’ve been responsible for the styling of some beautiful cars over the years, the most recent of which is the Aston Martin V12 Zagato.

But Coventry Proptotype Panels may not be a name you recognise.  Owned by wealthy RussianVladimir Antonov, the low volume car maker owns Spyker sports cars, which it bought from the company of  (then) the same name when they got wrapped up in SAAB.  It also owns Bowler, which makes those mad Range Rover based rally raid vehicles that caused Richard Hammond to pronounce himself a “Driving God”.

CPP also makes the Aston Martin One-77 for the Gaydon based sportscar manufacturer and it’s likely they may be called in to produce the limited production run of Aston V12 Zagatos too.  Probably more so now, as it will effectively be Zagato who are making them on Aston’s behalf, which sounds much sexier.

Zagato and new sister brand Spyker have also previously collaborated on the Spyker C12 Zagato, shown above.

As we revised this article on Thursday 7 July we’d still had no official word, even though we know Zagato staff have been reading this article.  Why the secrecy we wonder?