Rapide arrival

Aston warms things up by showing off the production version of its four-door supercar

02 February 2009

Back to Car News

Aston Martin Rapide

Related content

Video
The boys find the world’s best driving road (series 10, episode 1)
Video
Four-door supercars challenge, part 3 (series 15, episode 3)
Video
Four-door supercars challenge, part 2 (series 15, episode 3)

Just the thing for a frozen, snowy Monday morning: Aston has shown off the definitive, definite production version of the Rapide, its four-door supercar set to launch in 2010.

Looks good, eh? In fact, we reckon the production Rapide looks even better than the concept we saw a few years ago – no mean feat, that.

Aston design director Marek Reichman tells us that the Rapide is ’98 per cent different’ from the concept – take a look at the more muscular lines and cleaner front end.

The Rapide should be truly practical, too – well, practical by the standards of four-door supercars, at least. Sharing a structure and mechanical package with the DB9, but stretched some 30cm, the Rapide measures just over five metres long and features a proper pair of folding rear seats. For transporting your flat-pack wardrobes and all, we guess.

The Rapide will feature an uprated version of the DB9’s 6.0-litre V12: expect a power output of around 490bhp to cope with the Rapide’s extra weight. Though Aston hasn’t released any performance figures, expect a 0-60 time in the 4-and-a-half second region, and a top speed around 180mph. Yes, that’s a whole lot quicker than yer run-of-the-mill Quattroporte S.

It’ll be a whole lot more expensive than yer run-of-the-mill QP S, too – the Rapide is expected to cost around £140,000 when it goes on sale next year.
 
Pricey, yes, but cheaper than a DBS… and with enough passenger seats for three-fifths of Girls Aloud. Or two Cheeky Girls and the telly weathergirl of your choice. The possibilities are endless…

Related

Category:
Car News
Tags:
Aston Martin
Aston Martin Rapide
British
Marek Reichman
Aston Martin DB9
Aston Martin DBS
Four-door supercars
Top moments of TG telly
17 top moments of TG telly
Our most-watched clips
Hammond’s icons
BMW M3 (E30)
BMW M3 (E30)
First drives
Caterham Super 7 Supersport
Caterham 7 Supersport
Merc C63 Black vs M3 GTS
Merc C63 Black vs M3 GTS
In this month’s TG mag

What do you think?

Want to comment on this?

Deejay commented on this article

at 10:18 pm on 10 February 2009

I don't mean to sound a little obtuse, but Clarkson has a go at Porsche for their cars looking all the same...

Link to this comment

Report this comment

You are about to report a comment for breaking our Code of Conduct.

Please note, we will not remove a post just because you disagree with what is being said.

This form can only be used for reporting a comment. If you want to contact us please go to our contact us page.

I want to report this comment for:

Mausekino commented on this article

at 06:44 pm on 12 February 2009

@deejay: u r right with that thing, but diffrence is between porsches and astons always looking near-by-the-same: the astons look hot, think of angelina jolie having a handful of copys, that hot! the porsches don't, they look like awkward copys from jennifer aniston, the basicversion is quite nice to look at, but the copys look a bit weird (cayman) or just plain ugly (cayenne). besides that, on this pic the rapide looks a bit odd as well. probably cause it's white, probably cause it's a stupid virtual pic. just because some marketing-silly-ass said: "we can't send them a photo of a real one, it wouldn't look real!" or something...

Link to this comment

Report this comment

You are about to report a comment for breaking our Code of Conduct.

Please note, we will not remove a post just because you disagree with what is being said.

This form can only be used for reporting a comment. If you want to contact us please go to our contact us page.

I want to report this comment for:

MARKGILLY commented on this article

at 10:02 pm on 26 February 2009

perfect lots like a true 4seater ideal for taking the kids to school in !!!

Link to this comment

Report this comment

You are about to report a comment for breaking our Code of Conduct.

Please note, we will not remove a post just because you disagree with what is being said.

This form can only be used for reporting a comment. If you want to contact us please go to our contact us page.

I want to report this comment for:

lambosareforeva commented on this article

at 03:58 pm on 16 March 2009

Looks badass. Totally! Wow either this or the Estoque would be sweet

Link to this comment

Report this comment

You are about to report a comment for breaking our Code of Conduct.

Please note, we will not remove a post just because you disagree with what is being said.

This form can only be used for reporting a comment. If you want to contact us please go to our contact us page.

I want to report this comment for:

speedfreak219 commented on this article

at 01:30 pm on 19 June 2009

I dont mean to sound a little harsh or obtuse but I rather liked the sleek black concept car that was shown on www.carwalls.com . But this car looks good too . As for Lambosareforeva's , I agree with him . But I like the estoque better , and I 'd rather go for a DBS or DB9 because I always liked them better than any other aston . What about the one-77 . It has a V12 7.3 litre engine with a mean look too .

Link to this comment

Report this comment

You are about to report a comment for breaking our Code of Conduct.

Please note, we will not remove a post just because you disagree with what is being said.

This form can only be used for reporting a comment. If you want to contact us please go to our contact us page.

I want to report this comment for:

To post a comment: | Register