Aston Martin hopes to redefine the sports car market with its 180 mph four-door Rapide.
Our daring spy photographers go to great lengths to grab shots of tomorrow’s hottest products. So what do we do when an automaker snaps some pics even before we get the chance? Publish them, of course.
Aston Martin’s eagerly-awaited four-door sports car is still a year away from market, and its not expected to get its first public unveiling until late this year, but the folks in Gaydon thought we might want to see what they’re to. So, take a good look at this grand tourer, which, we’re told, offers plenty of room for four grown-ups.
The production Rapide shares the Aston V-12, here making a healthy 470 hp.
“The Rapide will be the most elegant four-door sports car in the world,” insists the clearly unbiased Aston CEO Ulrich Bez.
The Rapide first appeared in concept form three years ago. The most notable changes: the track-ready quad air intakes have been replaced by relatively conventional upper and lower grilles. The overall look has a distinct familial shape, starting with the aggressive nose, with its steeply raked headlamps, all the way back to the Rapide’s smoked glass taillamps.
The signature design feature is likely to be the unusual “swan wing” doors, however, which rise upwards and outwards as they open.
The four-door will share many of the underlying components found in Aston’s more conventional sports cars, such as the DB9 – notably the VH, or Vertical/Horizontal extruded aluminum architecture. To handle the extra size and weight, Rapide will share the Aston V-12, but here bumped up from 450 to 470 horsepower. Routed through the automaker’s six-speed Touchtronic gearbox, it should launch Rapide from 0 to 60 in an estimated five seconds, on the way to a 180 mph top speed.
The 2011 Aston Martin Rapide shares the same VH extruded aluminum architecture used for the 2-door DB9.
By the time it makes it to market, in 2010, Rapide will be facing some tough competition, notably from the four-door Porsche Panamera. The Aston is likely to carry the higher price tag, however, somewhere in the $200,000 range.
Rapide will be built at an all-new line, in Graz, Austria, operated by Magna Steyr, the same firm that’s produced a variety of low-volume specialty products, over the years.
Rapide will be the most significant product to emerge from Aston Martin since the British luxury marque was sold off by Ford Motor Co. to a consortium led by Kuwaiti investors, last year.