Aston Martin Rapide S, 2014

 

 Aston Martin Rapide S, 2014

The stunning new Aston Martin Rapide S is making its debut with yet more luxury and yet more power on offer in its quintessentially elegant four-door silhouette.

The iconic British car maker's new luxury GT has been sympathetically redesigned and painstakingly re-engineered to reassert its position as the world's most beautiful, and beautifully balanced, four-seat sports car.
Still instantly recognisable as an Aston Martin, of course, the new Aston Martin Rapide S now boasts an imposing and assertive new 'face', created by virtue of the impressive and striking new full grille.

Imbuing the new car with an even more sporting, forceful demeanour, the revised front end design is matched at the back by a striking new rear deck profile which includes a more pronounced boot lid 'flip'. The aerodynamic and aesthetic upgrades both reinforce the sporting nature of new Aston Martin Rapide S and work to counteract lift at higher speeds.

Engineered to excel
Changes under the new Rapide's skin are comprehensive, with a version of the new AM11 naturally-aspirated 6.0-litre V12 power plant delivering unprecedented power and improved in-gear acceleration.

Power from the new engine jumps significantly versus that of its predecessor: up by 17% or a massive 81 PS from 477 PS at 6,000 rpm to a now very substantial 558 PS at 6,750 rpm.

Peak torque increases, too, up from 600 Nm to 620 Nm at 5,000 rpm. Meanwhile an even more marked improvement in torque occurs lower down the rev range, as pulling power rises by more than 40 Nm between idle and 4,000 rpm with an additional 50 Nm available at 2,500 rpm.

Naturally, increases in power and torque lead to even swifter performance as befits a four-door sports car. New Aston Martin Rapide S shaves 0.3 seconds off its 0-62 mph time, which drops from the 5.2 seconds of the current car to just 4.9 seconds for the new model. Top speed climbs, meanwhile, to 190 mph.

The 5,935 cc naturally aspirated V12 boasts race car technology - developments derived directly from Aston Martin Racing's successful WEC GT campaign - to maximise both performance and efficiency. The new AM11 engine thus boasts fully CNC machined combustion chambers and lighter, hollow, cam shafts.

Dual variable camshaft timing, knock sensing, even the fully catalysed stainless steel exhaust system - these are all engineering advances developed to preserve the V12's position as a mainstay of the Aston Martin range.

The engine is now even more efficient, too. Despite the very significant increase in peak power and torque, the Aston Martin Rapide S is appreciably more economical than before. CO2 emissions drop by seven per cent - from 355 g/km to 332 g/km - while fuel economy now stands at 19.9 mpg on the official EU combined cycle.

A product of the latest generation of Aston Martin's world-renowned VH engineering philosophy, which debuted in 2003, the new car of course benefits from many elements of the current Gen4 VH architecture.

The carefully conceived engineering changes continue as the new Rapide now offers even sharper agility and even quicker responses to driver input. The new AM11 engine - a key Gen4 component - has been lowered by 19 mm versus the position of the powerplant in the previous car, with a corresponding reduction in the sports car's centre of gravity.

The changes also lead to a tangible improvement in front end turn-in - no mean feat for a car that was already acknowledged as a leader in dynamic performance.

Aston Martin engineers at the company's global HQ in Gaydon have worked to revise the car's dynamic stability control (DSC) in line with its significant increases in both power and torque.