ASTON SHOWS NEW FOUR-SEAT CRUISER
Aston Martin is to rival Porsche with its new four-door concept car to be unveiled at next week's Detroit motor show.
Four seats and doors and a 450bhp+ V12 form the core package of Aston's new Rapide, which could be in production by 2008. It uses a stretched version of the VH aluminium monocoque platform on which the DB9 and V8 Vantage are based and, even though it's only a concept so far, it could beat Stuttgart's four-door Panamera, due out in 2009, to market.
Motive power for the 1,900Kg Rapide will come from the same motor found in the DB9, uprated from the earlier car's standard 450bhp to 480bhp. The quad-cam V12 will sit in the nose and drive the rear wheels through a rear-mounted, paddle-shift controlled auto 'box.
The car looks to be some five metres long, about 300mm longer than the DB9, and about 40mm higher and wider than the DB9. According to Autocar, the car's creator, designer Marek Reichman, rear access and packaging have given ground to the need to create a shape that's low and sleek.
Just when you thought that Aston would be settling back and counting the pennies from pent-up demand from the DB9 and V8 Vantage, instead it's proved the versatility of the VH platform, and the speed with which it allows the Ford subsidiary to produce new models.
If produced, the Rapide, will cost some £160,000 and be produced at a rate of some 500 a year -- about 10 per cent of Aston's planned total production volumes.
Aston Martin Rapide #1:
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