Car review: Aston Martin Rapide
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Date Posted:
May-12-2010 14:25
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I haven’t even been in Spain a full day yet and already I’m getting the hang of the lingo. Two phrases in particular –
buena coche and
mucho dinero – are ringing in my ears with such familiarity I could have been raised in a bullring on a diet of paella. They mean “nice car” and “lots of money”, and when you’re driving around rural Spain in a convoy of brand-new Aston Martins, that’s pretty much all the vocabulary you need.
New directionThe
mucho dinero part is relative. To a Valencian orange farmer, the $366,280 starting price of a
new Aston Martin Rapide is a lot of fertiliser and pipe tobacco. On the other hand, for English Premier League footballers (who make up a good portion of Aston’s driver demographic) it’s 90 minutes jogging around a field thinking about your next haircut.
And
buena coche? Well, there’s not much to debate there: the Rapide is a very
buena coche indeed. Not only that, it’s Aston Martin’s first ever four-door production sports car – which is why we’ve flown halfway around the world to drive it. Ever since the Rapide made its debut at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, its back doors have been big news among the petrol-scented masses.
Aston Martin, after all, is a brand famous for building heroic, uncompromisingly driver-focused two-seaters; James Bond cars, basically. The most you’re supposed to carry in the back of an Aston is a silenced Walter PPK, a tuxedo and a toothbrush. In building the Rapide, the brand has opened its doors to such potentially un-Bond-like cargo as ice cream-toting children, parents-in-law and sick pets. The words “core brand values” and “buggered” spring to mind.
The Rapide is all about power...