There are truly some superb 4-door coupes currently in development including the Porsche Panamera and the Audi A7, but arguably the sheer beauty of the Aston Martin Rapide will see it come out on top. We first saw the Rapide in concept form back at the Detroit Motor Show in 2006 and the world has been badgering the British marque to build it ever since. Fortunately when the brand was finally released from the grasp of Ford and bought by a consortium headed by Prodrive's Dave Richards, Aston Martin's development moved into top gear.
First we saw the beautiful DBS in Frankfurt, now prototypes of a production version have been spotted in various locations and this latest video shows it powering round the famed Nurburgring in Germany.
The DB9 will provide the platform for the new model with a slightly tuned version of its 6.0L V12 engine increasing the power output to 480hp, performance figures look equally impressive with a 0-60mph time of 5.2 seconds, the top speed is likely to be just shy of 180mph. As we can see from the prototypes, the styling will stay largely unchanged from the concept version and will even sport a stunning glass roof.
The Rapide is scheduled to be launched sometime in 2009 as a 2010 model, if we are lucky we may see the full revealing before the end of this year, however the Detroit Auto Show in January seems the most promising venue.
