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The Aston Martin Rapide is a four-door, high-performance sport saloon, which British luxury marque Aston Martin plans to introduce in early 2010 to compete with the Maserati Quattroporte and Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, along with the upcoming Audi A7, Porsche Panamera, and Lamborghini Estoque. It was first presented as a concept car at the North American International Auto Show in 2006. The Rapide name is a reference to the Lagonda Rapide, a saloon car produced by Lagonda, now part of Aston Martin. The car is based on an Aston Martin DB9. The estimated price for the Rapide is around $260,000 US Dollars, although it is too soon to predict its price on the US market, the Rapide should be in full production in the US by Late 2010-early 2011.
Aston Martin has announced that the Rapide will be built at a dedicated plant at the Magna Steyr facility in Graz, Austria. Production will start in 2010 and the factory plans to build 2,000 per year. The production version will feature a full-length glass roof and LED light bars on the rear end, two firsts for Aston Martin.
The Rapide debuted at the Frankfurt auto show in September, three years after Aston Martin first previewed the ultra-luxury sedan in concept form.
It goes without saying the car will compete with vehicles like the Porsche Panamera. But the Aston will likely be one of the most expensive and exclusive luxury sports sedans on the market.
The Rapide features a hand-built 6.0-litre V12 engine producing 470 horsepower with peak power being delivered at 6,000 rpm and 443 pound-feet of peak torque at 5,000 rpm. A specifically tuned six-speed Touchtronic 2 automatic transmission allows the driver to change gear automatically or manually via the steering column-mounted magnesium paddles.
As one can see, the production version is very similar to the concept car, but does swap out quad-air intakes for upper and lower grilles. The rear of the car has strong family ties to other Aston Martin models, and sports ’smoked’ rear taillights.
As reportedly recently, the Rapide will be the first ever Aston Martin built outside of the United Kingdom, thanks to a partnership up with Magna Steyr.
Given a strong interest in the Rapide, Aston Martin says it will build between 1,000 and 2,000 units per year, up from an original estimate of 500 or less.
Expect to see the Aston Martin Rapide to hit the market sometime during 2010! Checkout our gallery of photos showing the car in a variety of real life and studio settings.
50 Cent knows business. He started life as a poor kid from Queens, and is now one of the richest men in hip hop with a media empire spanning CDs, video games, clothing — and now books. In his new book, ‘The 50th Law,’ 50 Cent (born Curtis Jackson) shares that seed trait within his personality that led to his expansive life of material wealth, tremendous cultural capital and creative freedom. By reading ‘The 50th Law,’ 50 and his co-author Robert Greene seek to transform anyone who is willing into a “a master player at power[.]”
‘The 50th Law’ distills 50 Cent’s accumulated business wisdom, and mixes it with great ideas concerning power from sages throughout the ages. Co-author Robert Greene, who also wrote the best-seller ‘The 48 Laws of Power,’ worked with Mr. Jackson on ‘The 50th Law’ to take the study of life’s power games to another level. This new book incorporates the struggles of life on urban streets as a fresh source of intellectual stimulation to inspire personal triumph. In the opening pages of ‘The 50th Law’ Greene explains this seemingly strange synergy of hip-hop and history:
“What struck me most was that we had a remarkably similar way of looking at the world, one that transcended the great differences in our backgrounds. For instance, in discussing the power games he was experiencing at that time in the music business, we both looked past people’s benign explanations for their behavior and tried to figure out what they were really up to. He developed this way of thinking on the dangerous streets of Southside Queens where it was a necessary life skill; I came to it by reading a lot of history and observing the crafty maneuvers of various people in Hollywood, where I worked for many years. The perspective, however, is the same.”
It is the hope of 50 Cent and Greene that ‘The 50th Law’ will help readers learn how to use power positively in their own lives to create a life without limits or fear. These life lessons are critical at a time in history in which both real and irrational fears seem to be tearing individuals and nations apart. From the fear of joblessness, to a fear of terrorist threats, to a fear of ‘Obamacare,’ there is a growing sense of powerlessness that we as a collective need to fight if our social problems are to be solved.
