Aston Martin added a little upscale glamour to Ford’s presence at the Detroit Auto Show with its introduction
of the Rapide four-door concept, captured here by Chris.
Dubbed a “performance car for every
occasion,” the Rapide is built on a stretched version of the platform used for the DB9 Coupe and Volante, and the
Vantage. Design Director Marek Reichman says, “We wanted to make the most beautiful four-door car in the
world,” and it looks like he lived up to his goal. An absolutely stunning car, by any measure.
More
photos and the official press release after the jump.
This
rather tasteful “emergency kit” resides beneath the floor of the boot, and includes twin champagne bottles,
Aston Martin-branded glassware, cosmetics, and a cigar cutters. Beats the heck out of jumper cables…
A
chessboard is included in your stash of emergency gear under the floor of the boot.
Official Press Release:
THE ASTON MARTIN
RAPIDE CONCEPT
INTRODUCTION
The Aston Martin Rapide concept is a four-door,
high performance coupé of remarkable grace and poise. Based on Aston Martin’s unique VH (Vertical/Horizontal)
architecture, the Rapide combines the company’s commitment to power, beauty and soul with space and practicality for
every eventuality. It stands for stylistic excellence, market innovation and flexible manufacturing. The Rapide is the
epitome of Aston Martin’s low-volume, high-technology approach, the synergy of modern methods and materials with
traditional skills to create a new form of craftsmanship for the 21st century.
While the Rapide retains
Aston Martin’s inherent design characteristics the additional length and extra doors build upon the DB9’s taut,
poised stance, generating a natural, even flow and a dynamic sensation that’s conveyed even when the Rapide is standing
still. “In terms of elegance the Rapide is adding value to the DB9’s undisputed elegance and subtle
understatement,” says Dr Ulrich Bez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aston Martin. “Our cars must
look beautiful from all angles, and the four-door is very well balanced.” Practicality and power are the Rapide’s
signature qualities, but above all it is recognisably an Aston Martin, a testament to the strength of the marque’s
design language. The Rapide’s four-door body provides greater access to the extended architecture, making it a
performance car for every occasion. “The proportions must be perfect,” says Dr Bez, “if we
couldn’t achieve this then we wouldn’t have made the car.”
ARCHITECTURE
Underpinning the Rapide concept is Aston Martin’s VH architecture, developed to offer exceptional manufacturing
flexibility. This high-strength, low-mass architecture forms the backbone of the current generation of Aston Martins,
spearheaded by the DB9 Coupé and flanked by the DB9 Volante and the Vantage.
The extruded
aluminium construction of the VH architecture can be modified in both length and width, providing a myriad of packaging
options, and the chemically-bonded structure (using glues derived from aircraft manufacture) is mated with bodywork that
mixes aluminum and composite materials. The architecture’s flexibility is further demonstrated by its use in the _
DBR9 racing car, where it is combined with carbon-fibre composite body panels to produce a modern race car of rare
beauty.
Aston Martin’s traditional hand-finishing, craft skills and attention to detail
operate side by side on the ultra-modern production line at Gaydon in Warwickshire. The VH architecture is at the heart
of this manufacturing operation, its modular structure providing such inherent rigidity that it has given the
company’s designers and engineers the same levels of freedom as their predecessors, 50 years before. In
today’s marketplace, even low volume manufacturers like Aston Martin are governed by strict legislation and the
need to balance power, weight distribution, handling and safety. Utilising the VH architecture as the foundation for
the new Rapide concept, Aston Martin has illustrated how their current range might be expanded, a four-door
coupé that complements the formidable DB9 2 2, DB9 Volante and the compact and muscular Vantage.
DESIGN ETHOS: EXTERIOR
The visual language of Aston Martin is highly distinctive. Across a range
of three cars, the company’s design team, led by Design Director Marek Reichman, fulfils Aston Martin’s core
values – power, beauty and soul – with bodywork that is taut, poised and muscular. “The brand is
about the driving experience,” says Reichman, explaining how the concept is intended to provide everything
customers have to come to expect from an Aston Martin, and more. “We wanted to make the most beautiful four-door
car in the world,” he says, as he traces the Rapide’s development from a series of exploratory sketches in
the Summer of 2005 to the finished, fully-functioning prototype. In the process, Reichman and his team explored the way
the Rapide might be used, where and when it would be driven, even who would be driving. The four-door body was a natural
way of providing access to the Rapide’s increased interior space, part of Aston Martin’s commitment to design
usability. “If there’s a space then you should also offer accessibility, otherwise you’re not being
honest,” explains Dr. Bez.
Reichman describes the ‘beautiful harmony’ of the line that runs
through the Rapide’s bodywork, giving the car the appearance of motion even while stationary, an athlete in flight,
rather than crouched and coiled upon the starting blocks. “It’s not a wedge, it’s graceful and
flowing,” he explains, “we decided to let the lines flow right through the body to the tail, which ends
very beautifully. In silhouette, the Rapide shares the same sinuous line as its two-door siblings, although when
compared with the poised stance of the Vantage with its sprinter-like forward thrust, the Rapide is a long distance
runner.” Reichman believes that proportion is fundamental to how a car is perceived. “There are forms that
appear at ease and forms that _ appear tense and uncomfortable,” he says, “we wanted to make everything on
the Rapide work in harmony.” Achieving this required the intuitive skills of Aston Martin’s modeling team,
who work with both raw clay models and advanced computer modelling. “We put character and feeling into the
surface,” says Reichman. “Our designers and modellers work with a sculptural language here at Aston Martin
– the play of light on the surface are incredibly important to us.” Full-scale models are viewed in daylight and
dusk conditions, for example, to ensure that the dramatic surface forms remain an integral element of each and every
Aston Martin. Reichman believes that technology like the VH architecture allows him “to keep the form language
and soul of the product.”
The Rapide represents the pinnacle of Aston Martin’s design ethos,
a formal language developed through the carefully balanced combination of elegance and aggression. In silhouette,
three-quarters view and from both the front and rear, the Rapide is instantly recognisable as an Aston Martin,
regardless of whether it is wearing the famous winged badge (still faithfully rendered in pewter and enamel on every
model). The soft curves of the flank kick up into muscular haunches above the rear wheel arches, with the roofline
staying low, true to the distinctive Aston Martin silhouette. The Rapide also features the metal side strakes, another
signature feature, while the doors feature Aston Martin’s unique ‘swan wing’ design, opening upwards at a 12-degree
angle away from the kerb to provide greater access. The rear doors cut unexpectedly deep into the flank below the
C-pillar, increasing the width of the opening to improve access. At 5m long, the Rapide is 30cm longer than a DB9, and
only 140kg heavier. “Aston Martin should always be about the proportions,” Reichman says. “Although
the Rapide is slightly taller than the DB9, the proportion of the section is the same, allowing the flowing lines to
encase a spacious passenger compartment.”
DESIGN ETHOS: INTERIOR
The Rapide
continues Aston Martin’s reputation for highly-tailored, individual cockpits. The trademark glass starter button
is a small element of theatre that is also beautiful and tactile, the perfect first point of contact with the car.
Providing sporty accommodation for four passengers in such a low and beautiful coupé presents a formidable
packaging challenge.
Sitting low to the ground, just four centimetres higher than a DB9, the
interior is an exquisite leather-swathed package, with custom-embossed shagreen hide specially sourced for the Rapide .
“It’s very cosseting,” admits Reichman, “it’s about creating a personal experience of the
journey.” Like a set of exquisite hand-tooled luggage, the interior is compact yet also surprisingly spacious,
with great attention to detail, like the extensive map and accessory storage and the mood lighting that maximises the
feeling of volume.
Aston Martin has always been about truth to materials: wood is valued for its
structural properties and appearance, as are aluminium, glass and leather, while carbon fibre is utilized for its
strength and weight-saving abilities and not just a showy finish. A transparent polycarbonate roof brings an increased
sense of spatial awareness, opening up the passengers’ vistas beyond the driver’s focus on the road ahead. This
ultra-light transparent material is a first for the company. The Rapide has dual climate zones, and the luxuriously
appointed rear seats come with their own DVD screens and controls for the audio system and environmental system.
The dashboard is very driver-focused, the three passengers can also be as engaged and involved in the
journey. For example, the satellite navigation system is fully accessible to all passengers, with a handheld Bluetooth
unit that allows rear seat passengers to add their input to the route ahead. It’s this level of involvement that
characterises the Aston Martin experience, and it is vital that both driver and passengers can share it.
The generous rear luggage compartment is accessed via a hatchback, a practical feature shared with the Vantage
and the pioneering DB2/4 of 1952. In addition, each rear seat folds down individually, allowing for myriad interior
options, be it three players plus three sets of golf clubs, or four people and their skis, which slot neatly above the
central console. To give the concept a real sense of occasion, the feeling that every journey ends in an event, the
interiors team have incorporated a chiller cabinet in the boot, perfectly shaped to hold a single Magnum of Jacquesson
champagne, along with four elegant flutes.
The clock is an integral part of the Rapide’s elegant
dashboard. For this element, Aston Martin turned to their existing partners Jaeger-LeCoultre, world leaders in fine
timekeeping and original manufacturers of dials in Aston Martins as far back as the 1929 1.5 Litre First Series. The
Swiss watchmaker, which dates back to 1833, also created the exclusive AMVOX collection of understated gentlemen’s
timepieces. Aston Martin’s engineers and designers collaborated with Jaeger-LeCoultre on the design of the Rapide
concept’s timekeeper, which takes on the characteristic traits of the AMVOX watches. The 270 degree sweep of numerals,
dark grey dial with circular brushed surface, hands, numerals and raised sapphire crystal combine to make a beautifully
refined object at the heart of the car, a series of sophisticated volumes created by the layers of the dials.
TRADITION
Aston Martin has always acknowledged the need for elegant, high-speed touring sports
cars. The four-door, four-seater saloon displayed at the 1927 Olympia Motor Show began a long tradition of cars that
combined elegance, style and power with usability. The Olympia car was a closed-body tourer that sported long, flowing
lines for the era, tapering to a luggage trunk and mounted on a tubular frame. The car was also low to the ground,
purposeful and sporting. Four years later another four-door saloon was exhibited, with an aluminium-panelled body by
Bertelli, finely engineered, detailed and upholstered throughout, with intriguing touches like the roof-mounted opening
glass panel above the rear passenger compartment.
Experimentation and innovation continued. The
‘Atom’ project began in 1939 as a response to materials shortages, packaging design and post-war needs. A four-door
saloon, the Atom was built around a steel tube chassis, upon which the bodywork was mounted. The strictly geometrical
bodywork drew upon the new science of streamlining, and the car was smaller and lighter than what had gone before, with
an innovative chassis design that ensured the company retained its image as a technical ground-breaker. In the decades
following the war, the David Brown-era cars created the quintessential image of the grand tourer, two-door fourseaters
that remain icons of car design. Beneath the supremely elegant skins there were yet more technological firsts, like the
strong chassis-and-tube ‘Superleggera’ construction of the early DB series. In the 1970s and 80s, Aston Martin was
uniquely positioned to accommodate almost any customer request, and four-door variants of the V8 and Virage models were
built for a select number of discerning customers.
THE JOURNEY
Every journey in an
Aston Martin is an occasion, proving that the most enjoyable way of getting between two points isn’t always a straight
line. The Vanquish S, DB9 Coupé, DB9 Volante and Vantage are all designed to sharpen the senses, extracting
every grain of texture from the road surface, with high levels of driver feedback and involvement. Yet when conditions
preclude making progress or spirited driving, an Aston Martin adopts a relaxing, restrained character, with the massive
reserves of torque and power combining with the uniquely cosseting interior to envelop the driver and their passengers
in the Aston Martin experience.
The Rapide continues this tradition – a fast, cross-country
machine that excels in any driving conditions. The Aston Martin customer doesn’t need to have their choice
dissected in minute detail: these are cars which appeal primarily to the heart, strong emotional design that is also
subtle and discrete. The Rapide is a uniquely personal machine, its interior representing the _ very best of the
company’s immensely skilled workforce, demonstrating how each Aston Martin is still tailored to a
customer’s precise requirements. It also represents the high degree of personalisation offered by ultra-modern
production facilities and a model line-up underpinned by a flexible architecture – a new model that could broaden the
range to cater for every requirement.
Like all Aston Martins, the Rapide is a superlative
performer. Powered by the V12 engine from the DB9 but uprated to 480 brake horsepower mated to a ZF Touchtronic
gearbox, the car has performance equivalent to the DB9, although the gearing has been adjusted to suit the longer
wheelbase and more refined ride. Carbon brakes and callipers, a first for Aston Martin, give the Rapide immense
stability and stopping power. “A sports car is not simply characterised by the number of doors,” says Dr
Bez, “so a four door car can still have the looks and performance of a sports car and the Rapide is certainly
true to its name, providing an unrivalled way of taking four adults on a long-distance journey along any type of
road.”
The Rapide is serious about the business of driving, a chassis that is equally at
home amongst winding back roads, mountain passes or high-speed carriageways. It has the expertise to devour
trans-continental distances while leaving the driver feeling fresh and alert, however far or fast. The rich exhaust
note is intended to be heard echoing off the sheer rock walls of the Alps, the steering demands to be taken to the
switchbacks of Austria’s Grossglockner Pass, while the engine begs to be opened up along a stretch of German Autobahn.
Although the power delivery is unrelenting, this is also a car designed for every day use, with ample space for a
golfing weekend for three in Scotland , a lengthy trans-American journey or even a trip to a Bordeaux vineyard, with
space to bring back 20 bottles of wine. You can sweep up to a hotel, restaurant or première and the four doors
allow your passengers to enter and exit with style.
An Aston Martin is about elegance, power and
innovation, a bespoke form constructed to high standards that provide the model definition of 21 st century design and
engineering execution.
The Rapide is a seminal evocation of Aston Martin’s recent history, proof
positive that the high performance four-door automobile need not imitate the conservative three-box saloon; it can be a
car of extreme elegance and beauty. A sporting coupé with real heritage, the Rapide is a practical choice that
expresses the pure emotion and passion that underpins the Aston Martin marque, its rich heritage and design DNA.
Aston Martin begins the 21 st century with almost limitless potential. As one of the strongest and most
recognisable brands in automotive history, the company now has the products, technology, production facilities and
distribution network to offer unparalleled choice in this market segment, able to move rapidly from prototyping to
concept to production. The company’s fast-expanding global dealership network continues to revolutionise the
highperformance sales environment, with a series of crisp, contemporary showrooms that highlight the very best in
modern architecture and design, making them the perfect backdrop for the product.