Aston Martin have now unveiled their four door Rapide. And it’s beyond beautiful. Looks-wise Aston have well and truly trounced Porsche’s Panamera, which looks as if it fell out of the ugly tree, hit every branch on the way down and landed on its side slash ass.
Looking very much like the DB9 was never a bad thing and the Rapide continues this to appear elegant and graceful mixed with a purposeful and slightly aggressive ambience.
In the rear of the Aston are two individual hand-trimmed seats, each featuring face level air conditioning and heating. It’s totally practical as the large 301 litre boot space can also be made into a 750 litre space if the rear seats are folded down. Front and rear doors open in a ’swan wing’ style, which look very cool indeed.
The engine is a front/mid mounted 6 litre V12 driving the rear wheels, which kicks out an almighty 470 bhp and 443 lb/ft torque. The predicted 0-60 mph (0-96 kph) time comes up in a respectable 5.1 seconds and another predicted top speed of 188 mph (303 kph). I almost guarantee that the 0-60 mph time will be quicker than that 
though and Aston are just hedging their bets.
The gearbox is a six speed ‘Touchtonic 2′ system which can be used fully automatically or ‘manually’. Come on Aston Martin, I thought you made real drivers cars? Where’s the real manual ‘box? It’s should definitely be optional.
Prices are expected to start at around £130,000.
For more information on the Aston Martin Rapide click here.
My name is John and I work on http://ontheautomotive.wordpress.com, I was wondering if you would like to arrange some reciprical links between us or add one of our links to your site or maybe exchange some advertising.
Shoot me an email back on this address if you are interested.
Would love to discuss some options, Cheers John.