Aston Martin Rapide (2009 - )

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.

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Rapide Concept

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