“Aston Martin doesn’t have a styling committee, or a large board that needs to give the go-ahead for a new car,” says Marek Reichman, design director at the British sportscar manufacturer. “It is basically CEO Ulrich Bez and me, with the final call being Ulrich’s,” Reichman continues. “He gives me a brief that is usually very short but very accurate – for example with the DBS he said he wanted the automotive equivalent of a very muscular man in an expensive tux. It is my job to interpret his direction correctly.”
So, then, what was the brief with the marque’s first four-door Aston Martin (barring the peculiarly rectilinear Lagonda of the early ‘80s), I wonder… “Well, it was simple,” says Reichman. “The Rapide had to be the most beautiful four-door car in the world.”
Already the Rapide is scooping up design awards, and having now seen it in the metal on a number of occasions, there can be little argument on the “most beautiful four-door” statement – certainly not from the Porsche camp. The proportions are exquisite and the detailing sublime.
Unveiled to some of the country’s wealthy and famous in Sandton last night, the Rapide is now on sale in South Africa from R2,8 million. According to Justin Divaris, CEO of Aston Martin South Africa, there appears to be plenty demand for the expensive new flagship in Msanzi.
We’ll get the opportunity to drive the newcomer soon, but technical details certainly look promising. Based on the same super-stiff, bonded aluminium VH (Vertical Horizontal) structure as all other Aston Martins, the Rapide is powered by the marque’s hand-built 6,0-litre V12 engine that produces 350 kW at 6 000 r/min and 600 N.m of torque at 5 000. Power goes to the rear wheels via a six-speed Touchtronic 2 automatic transmission that does duty so unexpectedly brilliantly in the DBS. Aston Martin claims a 0-100 km/h time of 5,0 seconds, impressive for a car that weighs nearly two tons.
I was fortunate enough be given a personal tour of the Rapide by its designer and was particularly interested to see how practical a four-seater it would really be, especially because the Panamera is so good in that regard. Well, I don’t think it is entirely as spacious as the Panamera, but it looks closer than I had expected. I can sit behind myself in comfort and the boot measures a claimed 317 litres. There is a neat folding wall that can be unclipped to grow total luggage space even more, and the backrests fold down as well, expanding total utility space to a claimed 886 litres – big enough for three golf bags, seemingly the new international boot space measurement standard…
What I particularly liked – and which separates the Rapide from the comparatively “mass-market” Panamera – are the exquisite details that one can only find on a low-volume, mostly hand-built car; items such as the leather straps with the magnetic “handle”, that you can use to lift yourself out of the rear seat, and which then magnetically attaches itself to the door frame, or the stitching on the seats, with their exposed double seams, similar to what you’ll find on top-end handbags, according to Reichman. In the past there have been Aston Martins that looked like a million bucks until you opened the doors, but this isn’t one of those – the Rapide is a complete package, superbly finished and exquisitely made (in Graz, Austria by the way). It also comes with a very long list of standard features, including a top-end 1 000 W Bang&Olufsen audio system with fifteen speakers. The individualisation options are mind-boggling – Aston Martin claims there are over 2,5 million different combinations of paint, options and finishes available from the marque’s core options list.
Is it worth double the price of a Porsche Panamera Turbo? For the answer to that question to be yes, the Rapide would have to be as manoeuvrable as a kitchen fly, faster than a Pagani Zonda and better made than a German bank vault. It clearly can’t be. But from what I’ve seen and from what I’ve read, it comes remarkably close to matching the Porsche’s best aspects and possibly even trumps it in some. What it offers in addition is the type of exclusivity that the far higher volume Panamera simply can’t offer and, of course, far more appealing styling. So then, perhaps not better, but more special, and more desirable?
We’ll get to test the Rapide soon. I can’t wait.