Featured car - We drive Bertone’s one-off Aston Martin Rapide
We drive Bertone’s one-off Aston Martin Rapide
It’s the ‘Jet 2+2’: an Aston Martin Rapide reimagined as a shooting brake…
We drive Bertone’s one-off Aston Martin RapideLatest news
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Meet Aston Martin's hybrid hydrogen racer
More pics of Aston's 6.0-litre, twin-turbo hybrid hydrogen Rapide S, set to race at the Nürburgring 24 hours...
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It's Aston Martin's 100th anniversary this year, and clearly, this new Rapide is very excited about the prospect. Just look at that face.
Actually, really look at that face, because it's a new one, sitting on an updated version of Aston's rather delectable four door Rapide. It's now called the Rapide S, and features a host of improvements.
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Aston has lowered this naturally aspirated V12 by 19mm up front, thus dropping the centre of gravity which they claim helps front end turn in, while there are also improvements to the stability control and adaptive damping. You get 'normal', 'sport' and 'track' modes, and you don't need us to tell you which mode to Sellotape permanently.
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Aston has used its racing V12 technology for this new generation engine, including CNC machined combustion chambers and lighter cams. It's also more efficient - CO2 drops to 332g/km from 335g/km while economy rises to 14.1L/100km. Though if you've ever experienced an Aston V12 in anger, good luck getting into the teens...
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The most important of which is underneath the bonnet. Aston has revised its fabulous 6.0-litre V12 (dubbed the AM11) engine to the tune of 408kW - some 17 per cent more than before.
Torque jumps to 620Nm too, up from 600Nm, and as such, the new Rapide S will accelerate from 0-100 in 4.9 seconds, 0.3 seconds quicker than before. Remember, the battle for car park superiority is won or lost in tenths. Top speed rises to 306km/h.
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It's the new Aston Martin Rapide S
More power, more luxury and much more face: four door Aston revealed
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The morsels of internet joy in our new magazine!
See all the videos and galleries featured in our new October 2012 issue. Mmmm, videos...
The morsels of internet joy in our new magazine! -
Rafael Nadal
Country: Spain | Sport: Tennis | Net worth: $50m | Age: 26
Current tennis world #3 Rafael Nadal might have withdrawn from the Olympics because of injury - and thus forfeiting the ability to defend the singles gold he won in Beijing. But he needs only to walk into his garage at home to cheer himself up.
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Rafael Nadal
CAR: Aston Martin DBS
Nadal saw an Aston Martin DBS at the French Open in 2008 and wanted to get one, but the decision was vetoed by his father, Sebastian. "You win Wimbledon, then you can buy it," he said. So Nadal won Wimbledon, in 2008, and promptly bought the Aston. "He never thought he'd lose that bet," Nadal says of his father.
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Exclusive: Bond’s DB5 is back!
First footage of the all-time great Aston from new film Skyfall
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Video: TopGear drives the Aston One-77
A video from our new October issue, in all its HD awesomeness
Video: TopGear drives the Aston One-77 -
"Look... the multi-media interface in even a car as good as the Ferrari FF wasn't modern even 10 years ago. A couple of smart guys could develop an app that's more modern than that. Because that stuff isn't core to Ferrari. There are lots of opportunities in automotive right now. You can invest a certain amount of money to help build a company, but you don't need to build a massive factory. A young company can make its mark if it can really innovate."
They innovate; Gerard Lopez facilitates. That's what gets you a front-running F1 team and one of the world's most intriguing car collections. But even here, right on the digital frontier, it's good to see some of the big kicks are still profoundly analogue. Lopez's brain might be a giant Pentium processor, but there's petrol in his veins.
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The engine and transmission for a Bugatti EB110 sits in a huge crate. Standing sentinel over it all is an enormous, seven-tonne Ford F350 pickup, powered by a 6.0-litre Duramax turbodiesel. A wolfish grin spreads over Lopez's face as he recounts his adventures in it. "A lot of fun," he says.
Go through another door, and prepare to rescue your jaw from the floor. There's a Mercedes McLaren SLR, a Porsche Carrera GT, an Alfa 8C Competizione Spider, a Ferrari 612 and 430 Scuderia, a Nissan GTR, an Eighties Aston V8 Vantage 6.3 and the last Lamborghini Diablo 6.0 off the line. -
Says Dr Ulrich Bez, Aston CEO: "The Vanquish is the ultimate expression of Aston Martin design ethos, engineering innovation and technical ability. I believe the car unveiled today once again puts this great British brand at the top of its class."
Australian prices aren't yet confirmed, but it will cost around $300k when it goes on sale in the UK later this year. Welcome back, Vanquish, we've been expecting you...
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It's a similar story inside too, with a One-77-esque centre console, infotainment system and even an identical steering wheel. And compared to the DBS, there's less reason for your limbs to complain inside: legroom is up 37mm, shoulder room broadens out by 25mm, elbow room by 87mm, and knee room extends by 50mm. And you can configure that interior as you wish: it's available as a proper four seater (2+2), or as a strict two seater (2+0). You know which box to tick. And we doubt you'll care much, but Aston has somehow found acres of boot space over the DBS: the new Vanquish gets 368 litres (186 litres for the DBS).
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And for the first time on an Aston, there's a proper motorsport-derived Launch Control system too. There's also stability control, torque control and adaptive damping (normal, sport and track), and as is the protocol for such cars these days, it clocked up thousands of hardened testing miles at the Nürburgring before being signed off.
Of course, you'll be wondering about those looks; familiarly Aston but with a hint of One-77. That's the idea: while the One-77 is actually the fastest and most powerful Aston ever built, it's sold out, so Aston wanted to stay faithful to the original V12 Vanquish ("so beloved of AM fans worldwide") while paying respect to the One-77.
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Still, it's no runner-up in the tech stakes; every single panel on the Vanquish is made from carbon fibre, and AM's ‘Vertical Horizontal' (VH) aluminium architecture has been re-engineered to be 25 per cent stiffer than the DBS. The front has also been redesigned (to allow for that engine lowering) and is now 13 per cent lighter than the DBS.
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