Features
The art of fourplay
'Conti GT (looks like a big MG to me, but right size and nice long distance); 911S (great drive, but bit small and utterly ubiquitous); Quattroporte (sexy as hell and practical, but hardly robust); 612 nice but still pricey (£130k minimum); Vanquish too brittle and tiny in the back; DB9 (smart but v small).
'What d'you think? What would you have? Jx
'PS. Don't know when prestige manufacturers will figure out the vast majority of blokes with this kind of money have kids we're mad about - and that we'd like the option to take them with us. That's why the Conti has sold so well - it's the only option.'
There are lots of blokes like John, Bez knows that. Enough he reckons to support a run of 500 Rapides over a couple of years starting around 12 months from now.
The price? Around $250,000 - or the price of a Vanquish over here. But that's jumping the gun a little. Let's go back to Marek Reichman and June of last year.
Reichman replaced Henrik Fisker the Monday after the DBRs came within two hours of an
historic highest-ever placing for a GT car at Le Mans.
Fast, ferocious and frighteningly tough to drive in last summer's heat, the DBRs were the heroes of Le Mans.
'Wheeling the car out into the sunset, it was apparent the big car could stay honest to the DB9'
The factory was flattened by the 22nd hour failure. But not Bez, nor Reichman, who replaced Henrik Fisker's internationalism with a passion tempered by an intellectual caution fine-tuned in a series of amazing Lincoln concepts.
Bez has always dogmatically insisted that the back seats of the DB9 were better than useless, but his heart was never in it.
His first brief to Reichman, then, was to find space within the DB9's form for proper back seats.
The concept developed in sketches, in computers, eventually in clay, and finally in hand-beaten aluminium. It added another 40mm to the height of the DB9 as well as the extra 250mm in the wheelbase.
Wheeling the car out into the sunset, it was apparent the big car could stay honest to the DB9, the section right the way through the body to the flipped up, extended tail starting in exactly the same front wings as the DB9.
"It just worked," Reichman says. "There's a beautiful harmony in there. It's not a wedge. It's graceful and flowing."
I sent a copy of our opening spread to 'John'.
'M. I'll take mine in Black Cherry with iron ore interior. Hubba, Hubba, Hubba. Jx'
Michael Harvey
Read about the Aston Martin Vantage in our Drives section
Aston Martin Vantage road test
V8 Vantage Roadster - April 16, 2007
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