Aston Martin Rapide

What we're talking about here is serious, luxurious, four-door sports cars and the latest one to arrive on the international motoring scene is the drop dead gorgeous Aston Martin Rapide.
Way more elegant in its styling than the Quattroporte and the Panamera, the new Aston has just finished its final engineering and testing shake-down program and it will be released in the first quarter of this year. European and US deliveries will start in the second quarter but it's not known at this stage when the first cars might arrive in Australia.
While we can only guess at pricing in this country, Aston Martin has announced that in the UK the car will start at _139,950 - that's more than $250,000 in our money.
Based on the two-door DB9 and powered by the same V12 engine, the Rapide boasts a peak power figure of 350kW at 6000rpm and 600Nm of torque that arrives at 5000rpm. Transmission is via a six-speed "Touchtronic" automatic and buyers can expect a sprint time to 100km/h of around 5.5 seconds and a top speed of around 300km/h.
Standard kit on the lavishly equipped Rapide will include a 15-speaker, 1000watt Bang & Olufsen Beosound audio system tailored specifically for the Aston, heated memory seats, dual cast brakes and an adaptive damping system.
The two rear seats are separated by a big centre console that houses the DVD player controls and the screens for these are mounted in the rear of the front seat head restraints.
Despite its slinky profile that is just 38mm taller than the DB9, the Rapide has 317-litres of boot space with the rear seats up and 886-litres when they are folded down.
The hand built car will be built at a new 17,000 square metre Aston Martin plant in Graz, Austria and the company says each Rapide will take about 220 man-hours to build. It is anticipated some 2000 Rapides will be built in the first year.