Because You Don't See Or Hear a Lot About Them... The Aston Martin Rapide- James Bond for Four

Five years ago Mercedes-Benz unveiled what they liked to call, the four-door coupe, the CLS. While I like to think CLS stands for Coupe-Like-Sedan, many scoffed at their intent to market a low-slung, obviously four-door sedan-type vehicle, albeit a bit cramped inside, and hope to pass-it-off as a coupe- which traditionally has, well- two doors.

Remarkably, they were onto something- but Mercedes, known for it’s four-door offerings in the world of luxury cars; sports coupe manufacturers like Porsche, Maserati Lamborghini and Aston Martin- traditionally two-door coupe makers are putting out their version of the coupe-squared- in other words- four doors.

Making its way across the pond from Aston Martin this spring is the all-new Rapide- the four-door, four-passenger sports car of a car (call it what you will) of what I like to think of as “James Bond for Four.”

Think Aston Martin, you think hand-built sports and grand touring coupes befitting of kings, queens and certain secret MI-6 figments of Ian Flemming’s imagination- 007; but what a lot of car people, especially car people don’t know was that the same marquee known as Aston Martin, its then owner David Brown, who bought the company in 1947 (hence the “DB” before most of the brand’s models, even today) also owned a company called Lagonda which Brown tried reviving in the early sixties with a car called the Rapide.

Rapide. Think fast, but don’t think the Spanish pronunciation which can be topped-off with an “andele, andele;” rather like “Rahh-peed” ending with something similar to what a bad dog does to a carpet when you’re not there.

The Lagonda Rapide (1961 to 1964) was basically a four-door version of an Aston Martin DB4 (for your education, Sean Connery as James Bond debuted a DB5 Vantage in Goldfinger) with Carrozzeria Touring of Milan Italian coachwork, tailfins and an oval-esque, insinuating front fascia- like a period Ford Edsel- but this vulgar four-eyed beast did 125 miles-per-hour in total comfort and poise. Roughly fifty were built and even fewer today survive. So much for the Lagonda Rapide.

Rather than try to resurrect a brand that couldn’t even be saved fifty years ago, Ford, who has owned Aston Martin for quite sometime now, had the genius thought to revive the Rapide- but under the world admired and revered Aston Martin namesake hence the car featured here.

Mercedes-Benz sometimes calls them coupes, most others sedans, the British refer to them as saloons, but as explained, the Rapide is a four-door version of an Aston Martin DB9 in which it shares much of the same components, switchgear, platform and such. Same is the normally aspired 470-horse/443 ft-lb. 6.0-liter V12 as found in the DB9, albeit with a longer wheelbase the Rapide promises to ride slightly more refined than the coupe counterpart while offering blistering road going performance for four in a hurry. The braking, handling and prowess all promise that James Bond Aston Martin feel of which the brand is known. Zero to sixty comes in a touch north of five seconds for those who benchmark a cars performance based-on acceleration alone. The only transmission offered is a rear-mounted, six-speed automatic with drive-by-wire touch-shift on the steering wheel- so, performance is quick and easy for most all.

I’ll be honest- the Rapide is not a substitute for a proper four-door sedan. Don’t expect a lot of rear-seat comfort for four grown adults as you would an Audi A8, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Jaguar XJ or BMW 7. The configuration is more 2+2 seating, with a large and high transmission tunnel running fore and aft the cabin, much like the Porsche Panamera.

Also like the Panamera, the Rapide is a hatchback with a large fifth door/window in the back that gives access to the rear, or boot. Conveniently- the rear seats fold flat- giving an heir of practicality to what was once just a comfortable sports car. The British may call this a shooting brake configuration; we call it here a hatchback.

What a glorified hatchback it is at some $200,000 to start. Aston Martin, Ian Callum-penned good looks with an aluminum body, a leather-wrapped, exquisitely detailed and trimmed interior, Bang & Olufsen™ sound system; the Rapide is a Savile Row suit of a car, capable of running in track sneakers and still looking proper- wince at it in a darker color, and you’d be hard-pressed to really decipher it from the typical DB9 coupe at speed- if that can ever be called “typical.”

Don’t expect to see too many Rapides on the road here, or abroad. Just a couple thousand are set-to-be-made at its Graz, Austrian plant a year. All-in-all, coupe, sedan, shooting brake, hatchback, whatever you want to call it- the Aston Martin Rapide is one cool and sultry English version of the “four-door-sports car” if there ever officially was one.