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AM have
announced that the Rapide will make production in late in 2009. The car has
been spotted testing both on the roads around Gaydon and on the
Nürburgring; videos have been posted on the web by many people. What
is of great interest is that the Rapide is scheduled to be the first
Aston in series production to be built outside of the UK. A deal has
been made by AM with Magna Steyr to build the Rapide in a specialist
facility in Graz, Austria, in a facility based on that already at
Gaydon to be known as the Aston Martin Rapide Plant (AMRP). At this
point in time, it is the intention to produce 2000 cars annually.
By late January 2009, AM
have made available some new photographs that show what the Rapide
production car will actually look like. And it's certainly evolved
from the concept, no longer just a stretched DB9, the Rapide has
developed a look of it's very own. The headlights are larger than the
DB9 extending further back along the wings with V8 Vantage LED
indicators. The glass roof appears to still be there, but we don't
know as yet that it can change from transparent to translucent
although I don't see why not. A crease line extends along the
doors beginning at the side strakes in a fashion seen on the V8
Vantage. The door mirrors appear much larger in the January 09
pictures, but in the side view released the following April they
appear to have slimmed down to something similar to those on the
One-77.
Expect to see the car
unveiled at some time during Summer 2009 with production commencing in
February 2010. |
