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Even if the English coachbuilder, Aston Martin, has started to pull back the curtain concealing their answer to Maerati’s Quattroporte. The Rapide sport sedan will not make its official debut until September at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and go on sale early in 2010. Thanks to a very lucky Aston Martin enthusiast who caught the car completely undisguised in between test runs for sharing their discovery with us. Not much has been revealed about Aston’s new sport saloon, but one thing is for sure, compared to the other new arrival on the four door GT car market, Porsche’s Panamera, the Rapide wins our vote for most style. The Rapide will be powered by the same 6.0 Liter V12 from the DB9, despite the extra pair of doors, the power plant will still make the exact same 470 HP and 443 lb-ft of torque as in the DB badged Aston Martin. The engine will be connected to one of Aston’s Touchtronic automated manual transmission, which provides all of the easy to use features of an ordinary automatic transmission with racecar inspired paddle shifters mounted behind the steering wheel. .
5 comments: Aston Martin Rapide caught undisguised You must be wondering why it is named after the Rapide and why it has a very long nose and a hatchy back? Well, let me tell you this. The Lagonda Rapide was a 4-door GT car produced from 1961 through 1964. Based on the Aston Martin DB4, it was David Brown’s attempt to revive the Lagonda marque which he had purchased in 1948. The car featured tailfins and a horse collar grille like Ford’s failed Edsel
 Rapide is a better name than Panamera, anyway, and is almost sure to be a more sublime car, especially if it is treated to some of the niceties of the DBS development.
 don’t know, fellas. The nose on this thing is about 10 inches too long. It looks like Pontiac Trans-am front end. I’m sorry, but it just looks comical. Is this thing front wheel drive? How are you supposed to maneuver it through a parking lot? Will you smash through the barriers on mountain roads?
 Is this the Panamera competitor? Wow. I think Topspeed says the right verdict here. In fact it was first presented as a concept car at the North American International Auto Show in 2006. The Rapide name is a reference to the Lagonda Rapide, a saloon car produced by Lagonda, now part of Aston Martin. The production version may feature a full-length glass roof, a first for Aston Martin. Although ot doesn’t seem visible with this spy shot.
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Posted on
06.11.2009 @ 14:16