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Archive for the ‘Aston-Martin Rapide’ Category

A new six-minute video of the Aston Martin Rapide was recently released during a recent media presentation of Aston Martin’s supposed ‘Porsche Panamera-repellant’ in Valencia, Spain.

Though it doesn’t have the high-octane thrills of other videos we’ve seen in the past – for one, it starts off aimlessly driving at a parking lot – the length and detail behind the video is enough to convince us that this video is a must-watch.

In it you’ll see the car being run around different locations – from the traditional city driving to a more picturesque country-side joyride –and it even has a number of interior shots to give us a close-up look at what’s inside the new Rapide. Don’t be fooled by the relative tameness of the video because the Rapide, with its 6.0-liter V12 engine that produces as much as 477 horsepower and 443 lb/ft of torque, is a certified beast on wheels.

Video: Aston Martin Rapide drives around the streets of Valencia originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 22 February 2010 13:30 EST.

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Aston Martin recently invited us to take a closer look at their latest entry into the rapidly expanding high luxury sports car segment, the all new four door Rapide. It’s not every day that a piece of the Frankfurt Motor Show comes to you, and that is the exact feeling that the English coachbuilder is hoping their clientele experience as well. The car being shown to us happened to be the actual concept car from Frankfurt, and it was making its sixth stop on a cross country tour just up the road in Palm Beach with the hopes of filling out a few order forms for the production version.

From the sound of things they were doing quite well, collecting almost 50 orders for the South Florida market and over 150 on the tour so far, and with 1800 Rapides being produced for worldwide consumption only around 500 will make their way to the U.S. and a large chunk of the limited production hand built $200,000 four door super cars have already been spoken for. The car in front of us was essentially fully finished stretched DB9, while the final production version for 2010 will be a bespoke chassis for the English super car builder with the familiar 470 HP V12 up front and six speed semi automatic transaxle out back, but the underpinnings are going to be truly unique, a big selling point for the super car maker.

Just glancing at the Rapide’s order form will give you an idea of the extent that Aston Martin will go to in order to tailor their new four door to their pickiest customer’s wishes. As far as paint and upholstery are concerned every available option was on display and aside from the standard options the coach builder will match any color you can deiver. However Aston’s attention to detail even surprised us when we were shown the leather case containing the Rapide’s interior stitching options, in both fine and coarse thread.

Continued after the jump.

Top Speed gets up close with the Aston Martin Rapide originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 29 December 2009 17:00 EST.

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Aston Martin recently invited us to take a closer look at their latest entry into the rapidly expanding high luxury sports car segment, the all new four door Rapide. It’s not every day that a part of the Frankfurt Motor Show comes to you, and that is the exact feeling that the English coachbuilder is hoping their clientele experience when they come to take a look at it. The car being shown to us happens to be the actual concept car from Frankfurt, and the preproduction Rapide was making its sixth stop on its cross country tour just up the road from us in Palm Beach. Aston’s hopes is that by showing potential customers the car in person, they will be compelled to fill out one of the detailed order forms for the production version.

From the sound of things they were doing quite well, collecting almost 50 orders from the South Florida market and over 150 on the tour so far, with 1800 Rapides being produced for worldwide consumption and only around 500 making their way into the U.S., a large chunk of the limited production hand built $200,000 four door super cars have already been spoken for. The car in front of us was essentially fully finished stretched DB9, while the 2010 model will feature a bespoke chassis with the familiar 6.0 Liter 470 HP V12 up front and six speed semi automatic transaxle out back, but the entire underpinnings are going to be unique, which happens to be a big selling point for Aston.

Just glancing at the Rapide’s order form gives you an idea of the extent that Aston Martin is willing to go to in order to tailor their new four door to their pickiest of customer’s demands. As far as paint and upholstery are concerned every available option was on display in West Palm and aside from the standard options, the coach builder will match any color you can deliver. However Aston’s attention to detail even surprised us when they pulled out the leather case containing every one of the Rapide’s interior stitching options, available in both fine and coarse.

Continued after the jump.

We get up close with the Aston Martin Rapide originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 29 December 2009 17:00 EST.

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After more than 3 years of speculation, Aston martin has finally revealed the Rapide – their first sedan in the line-up. Panamera watch out! Deliveries will begin in early 2010. The Rapide’s engine will be the 6.0-liter V12 lifted directly from the DB9, and will make the exact same 470 hp and 443 lb-ft of torque as in the DB9. The 0 to 60 mph sprint will be made in 5.1 seconds, while top speed is estimated at 188mph. The powerplant will be mated with six-speed Touchtronic 2 automatic (…)

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On the surface, the Porsche Panamera and the Aston Martin Rapide looks to be set on an even playing field. But if you dig deeper behind the differences between the two, you’ll realize that the Panamera is just about a notch out of reach for the Rapide in some pretty critical performance elements – speed, power, and torque to name a few.

Autoblog knows that a heads-up race between the two cars wouldn’t even be competitive so they decided to set a handicap. Whereas only one person will be on-board the Rapide, the Panamera will have four people inside of it, with the hopes that the added weight on the Panamera would be a fair compromise for the Rapide.

So they set out to do two separate time tests for both cars – one person on board the Rapide and four people riding the Panamera. Sounds like a fair fight, right?

Turns out, the added bulk in the Panamera didn’t make a difference.

The Porsche luxury sports car easily beat the Rapide’s time in the 0-60mph time, the 0-100mph time, and the 0-100-0mph time. And it did so pretty convincingly.

The Panamera scored times of 4.6 seconds (0-60), 10.6 seconds (0-100), and 15.8 seconds (0-100-0), besting the Rapide across the board, whose times of 5.6 seconds (0-60), 12.2 (0-100), and 17.6 (0-100-0) was far less competitive than we initially thought, especially the pretty significant handicap the Panamera was given.

Video: Aston Martin Rapide and Porsche Panamera compare speed times originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 7 March 2010 13:34 EST.

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