Aston Martin Rapide Production Model Spied

[Intrepidation]

Who needs spy photographers like Hans Lehmann when you have readers like Car Magazine's Simon Gregg that stumbled upon Aston Martin's all-new Rapide sport sedan sitting in a parking lot without a single trace of camouflage! From what we gather, the test car must be one of the final prototype models of the four-door Aston that is scheduled to be officially revealed to the public at the Frankfurt motorshow in mid-September. The undisguised prototype is finished in a menacing black color with a contrasting red interior.

Poised to take on any top-notch sport sedan including the most powerful variants of the Porsche Panamera, the Rapide will be offered with a 6.0-liter V12 engine that churns out 470bhp and 600Nm of torque. Power will be driven to the rear wheels through a six-speed ZF automatic transmission with Aston's Touchtronic control.

The Rapide that will be built by Magna Steyr in Graz, will begin arriving at Aston Martin showrooms around the world in early 2010. As for prices don't expect anything lower than $200k.

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2009/06/aston...tion-model.html

[Intrepidation]

This car is gorgeous. It makes the Panamera look absolutely dumpy in comparison.

[Nick]

This car is gorgeous. It makes the Panamera look absolutely dumpy in comparison.

It doesn't take much comparing to see how dumpy the Panamera looks.

[Intrepidation]

It doesn't take much comparing to see how dumpy the Panamera looks.

This is true, but it makes the Porsche look that much worse.

[pow]

The DB9 was pretty striking when it first came out, but I'm getting slightly bored of Aston, particularly with the recent onslaught of "boutique" luxury sedans and concepts that all share the same design formula: a greenhouse like a piece of sashimi, sandwiched between Coke bottle front and rear fenders, resting on multispoke turbine wheels. There's the Fisker Karma, the Tesla Model S, the upcoming XJ, the A7 Sportback, the BMW CS...

Edited June 27, 2009 by empowah

[CSpec]

I don't really like it. The DB9 design is 5 years old now, and this also just looks stretched and not substantial enough.