New car news

05 October 2009 - 10:00

Video: Aston Rapide does Stelvio

It's been a long wait, but the Aston Rapide is nearly here.

We finally saw the production version of the gorgeous four-door in Frankfurt last month, and now Aston has created a slick promotional video showing the Rapide in testing.

The three-minute clip takes the Rapide from high-speed testing in the UK to the Nurburgring and, finally, to the Stelvio Pass in northern Italy for drivetrain development.

Yes, that's the same Stelvio Pass that Jeremy, James and Richard tackled in their trio of luminous lightweight supercars. Not a bad place to test a couple of boxfresh Rapides, eh?

Just to remind you, here are a few Rapide numbers: it's powered by the DB9's 6.0-litre V12 putting out around 350kW, and is expected to hit 100km/h in around five seconds flat.

The first Rapides will hit the road early next year. What's it going to be, all you well-monied family types? Rapide, Maserati Quattroporte or Porsche Panamera?