The persistent test drive of speed aston martin Rapide
Who says that a four-door sports car is just a compromise between space and comfort for sports car manufacturers? At least, aston martin, the birthplace of racing cars in Britain, doesn’t agree with this, because on this 4-door and 4-seat Rapide, we can still see their meticulous adjustment of chassis and their persistence in performance and speed …
As early as 1948, aston martin acquired another British racing car factory named Lagonda (Calm Creek) in American Indian language. From 1961 to 1964, based on the DB4 classic coupe, it produced 55 four-door 4-seat GT sports cars named "Fast" in German. Later, from 1976 to 1989, it again.
Therefore, when the "four-door Coupe" whirlwind began to blow in the car world, this time-honored sports car manufacturer, located in Britain and founded by speed fanatic Lionel Martin in 1913, vowed to overthrow the track superstar Bugatti in that year. At the Detroit Auto Show in North America in January 2006, the concept car named Rapide was launched again, and at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany in September 2009, this four-door four-seat car was brought with the same elegant appearance and excellent performance.
● It is still a variety of British DNA.
Don’t doubt that you are not mistaken, because although it looks like an enlarged two-door GT sports car at first glance, it has perfect body lines and elegance with a little domineering, but it is actually Rapide, a four-door four-seater sports car made by aston martin with the DNA of an orthodox English sports car in its blood.
Rapide, originally positioned as a "4D sports car", is a brand-new car series launched by aston martin after the successful launch of V8 Vantage, DB9 and other coupes. Its body length is more than 5 meters, 198mm more than DB9′ s 4710mm, reaching 5019mm, even longer than Porsche Panamera, which is positioned as a "4D sports car".
But what is amazing is that aston martin can faithfully preserve its family classic shoulder/waist line design and broad and powerful rear texture, and the front shape still inherits the "convex" design that has become a family feature, with a chrome-plated checkered fence built in; The engine cover embedded with two metal vents echoes the xenon headlights and the LED daytime running light group next to it, and together with the extended wheel arch, it spreads the traditional introverted atmosphere of British sports cars.
The same streamlined and low-stretched car side lines reflect the insistence of aston martin stylists on modeling perfection, because even if part of the back seat head space has to be sacrificed, the sharp curve that rises with the front windshield and falls sharply from the roof to the rear is as elegant as every aston martin, and also maintains the aesthetic feeling like a coupe. A slender gill hole is set on both sides of the fender to extend the visual effect.
As for the rear part, the Rapide has designed a left/right double "C" taillight group on both sides below the upturned duck tail, which is connected by chrome trim strips, and there are double-outlet tailpipes on both sides below to remind the oncoming car that this is a Rapide with 470 horsepower. Please weigh yourself before provoking.
In addition, like all aston martin cars, Rapide’s doors are also designed with swan wings, which will rise slightly by 12 degrees after opening, so as to prevent the doors from colliding with obstacles lying on the side of the car, such as sidewalks, and create a light visual sense; But the difference is that the Rapide after lengthening the car body not only has two more doors, but also adds a hatchback-like tailgate at the rear, which not only takes into account the various styles of styling design, but also creates more practicality.
● Balance between taste and practicality
When the swan-wing door is lifted, two hand-made independent sports car bucket seats are greeted, which can provide excellent coating and support. The special Kestrel Tan orange-brown leather coated interior is excellent in touch and texture, and it is quite matched with the dashboard and steering wheel that maintain the consistent black tone, revealing the unique taste of British gentlemen.
The instrument panel adopts the traditional four-ring design, the speedometer is marked to 330km/h, and the counter-clockwise tachometer is marked to 8000rpm. There are square LCD screens in the center of the instrument, which can display all kinds of information.
The shape of the center console follows the design similar to its sports car series, and a circle of matte metal rings is added around the knobs and buttons, which can enhance the overall visual presence and durability, seemingly simple but quite deep; At the top of the center console are four buttons related to gearbox operation, namely, P (parking gear), R (reverse gear), key insertion hole, N (neutral gear) and D (pure automatic). In the middle are various operation switches of constant temperature air conditioning and sound system, and from left to right at the bottom, in order, ADS(Adaptive Damping System) electronic suspension setting switch, Sport mode switch button, ESP system close button and rear fog light switch.
When coming to the back seat, although aston martin shortened the design of the rear door of Rapide and sacrificed the head space of some passengers in the back seat for styling, and widened the design of the rear axle for handling, Rapide actually provided a good back seat space, and at least an editor with a height of 174cm was not a problem to sit in. Besides having a good front view, the rear part of the central armrest also prepared an independent air conditioning operation interface, an air outlet and a cup holder for the back seat, which made passengers sit more comfortable.
But to tell the truth, the back seat passengers need enough space to relax their knees when traveling for a long distance, so if they really want to take a GT trip with four people fully loaded, I’m afraid it’s a better choice to go home and change to Bentley Mu Shang. However, if you want to have an 18-hole ball game with your friends, it doesn’t matter. Just press the rear seat down button next to the seat belt fixing point of the rear seat C-pillar, and the rear seat of Rapide will fall forward, forming a two-story complete storage platform, and instantly expanding the space of the luggage compartment from 301 liters to 750 liters, which can easily put in two sets of complete balls, and finding its own balance point on the balance of taste and practicality.
At this point, press the car key in the center of the center console, and the huge 6.0-liter V12 engine lying under the hood of the Rapide engine immediately responded with an unpretentious roar, urging: Let’s go …
● Gentle dependence of 6.0-liter V12 engine
As for the power system prepared by aston martin for Rapide, it is a 6.0-liter V12 naturally aspirated engine, which is also configured on DB9 and adjusted by Cosworth, a famous British F1 engine manufacturer. The engine body falls behind the front axle, which can control the distribution of the front and rear center of gravity of the car body at 51: 49, and provide the maximum horsepower of 477 horses when the engine speed is 6000rpm. At 5000rpm, it can provide the maximum torque of 600 N m. With the 6-speed Touchtronic 2 automatic manual transmission system adjusted by ZF, the Rapide, which weighs 1950kg, can complete the acceleration sprint of 0-100km/h in 5.2 seconds, and the top speed can reach 296 km/h.
But to be fair, Rapide’s data is not particularly outstanding according to the standard of "sports car". 0-100km/h in 5.2 seconds, and even many high-performance four-door running RVs with slightly lower prices can be easily achieved.
However, aston martin always pays more attention to the balance of vehicles than the pursuit of horsepower, so the data is not the key point they want to emphasize. On Rapide, you can find that the awakened engine conveys smooth operation, full power in the full speed range, and low but not arrogant exhaust sound, which is more in line with its gentlemanly image.
With the D gear engaged and the accelerator lightly stepped on the road, Rapide’s start was "gentle", but it made people smile easily, and you can obviously feel that the engine is always ready with sufficient strength to let you use it, so even if the "Sport" button at the bottom of the center console is not pressed, this force can still be maintained from a low speed to a super-turn-off area of nearly 7000rpm, and the process of speed increase has not hesitated. It is the kind of natural intake engine with large displacement that will make people remember it again and again. It is both linear and full. Unlike supercharged engines, you don’t have to worry about the sudden acceleration after supercharging, and you don’t have to worry about the emptiness or hysteresis before supercharging, which fully shows Cosworth’s skill.
● The car turns gorgeous and happy at will.
But the real drama started from the moment after the "Sport" was pressed, because at this time, Rapide, just like David Beckham who took off his suit and put on his sportswear, was still handsome, but could show all kinds of delicate football skills more calmly. At this time, Rapide, which is no longer tied with hands and feet, has the power that the engine explodes, which is not only more direct than before the switch, but also steeper in the output curve. The vigorous thrust keeps coming, constantly pushing Xiangqian Che forward, and the strong feeling of sticking to the back will be accompanied by the rapid speedometer pointer, which will make you trapped in a comfortable bucket seat until you release the throttle, which is quite enjoyable and even makes people forget that this is a four-door sports car weighing nearly 2 tons.
Maintain SPORT mode to conquer corners, and directly challenge the limit with the hardest setting. Although you are sitting in Rapide’s car at this time, you will obviously feel the bumps on the road surface coming from the ground directly and mercilessly through the tires and steering column, which is completely different from the previous one, but Rapide, which adopts the front/rear double A-arm suspension structure design, will also respond to a more acute dynamic response, and even let you clearly feel the relative position of the four tires. It feels like driving a V8 Vantage with a length of only 4380mm, and you won’t feel that you are driving a four-door sports car with a length of more than 5 meters.
Therefore, on this closed road, even if the editor tries to attack the corner at a speed of over 80km/h again and again, and even forces the tail of the Rapide to be thrown out of the corner gently due to the influence of centrifugal force, the ESP system will obediently pull the car back to the preset route before it gets out of control, and almost no tires can be heard all the time.
● Persistence in speed
In terms of space performance, Rapide can’t be compared with the traditional four-door RV even if the length of the car is more than 5 meters and the wheelbase is 2989mm, and aston martin, which focuses on adjusting the overall balance of the vehicle, can’t give it the upper hand in the horsepower world of "convincing people with strength".
However, on Rapide, even though there is no spacious interior space and we can’t see too many complicated high-tech equipment, it just insists on that kind of self-confident and calm elegance and attitude, and it always makes people forget about its excellent chassis adjustment and comprehensive dynamic performance after the actual test drive. On Rapide, we once again see aston martin’s persistence in speed.
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