Motoroids is reporting that Aston Martin is going to officially land on Indian shores by the end of this year. The cult British car maker is looking to start with a dealership in Delhi and Mumbai, the two sure-shot markets for exotic vehicles.
The company will be introducing the V8 Vantage, DBS and the recently unveiled four-door saloon, the Rapide. The company might not launch the V12 version of the Vantage in the Indian market.
The prices for the cars is expected to begin at around 1.25 crore rupees for the V8 vantage and could go upto 2.95 crores for the top of the range DBS.
With Aston Martin also set to officially make its India entry, the two boxes that aren’t checked are Ferrari and Maserati.
The 4-door Aston is deployed to wipe out the Porsche Panamera and the upcoming Estoque (if it does come) from Lamborghini. Powered by a 470HP 6.0-liter V12 engine delivering about 600Nm torque, the Rapide’s rapid acceleration will get rapider with the new V12 engine in the future sourced from Mercedes Benz.
In what looks like a parking lot of a road side restaurant, a couple of fully disrobed Rapides were photographed, accompanied by another partly camouflaged car.
I’m not sure if the drivers of these cars were bribed. How come they allowed someone to open the doors and pick up some snaps?
Either it was that, or the drivers forgot what they were driving and their duties.
Or they were drunk.
Good for us though. Click on the thumbnails for hi-res images.
Only this morning we posted information on the Rapide’s official Frankfurt launch. Hours later, one of our readers brought this to our notice – Leaked official images of the Rapide.
The Aston Martin Rapide concept was unveiled three years back. Back then the word ‘recession’ was confused with ‘depression.’ Who really cared? Aston engineers and customers were fully protected from both, thanks to the development and the expectation and enthusiasm of viewing the fully finished product shortly after.
However, times changed quickly. Depression and recession now go hand in hand. Development times have expanded like the universe – lay offs, pay cuts, budget slashes, (bankruptcy filing) and all that have helped for the wrong reasons.
After all the drama and delay, finally, the Aston Martin Rapide will be made official at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It is supposed to be powered by a 470HP 6.0-liter V12 engine delivering about 600Nm torque.
Recession or no recession, fully expect the price tag to remain unscathed. The Aston Martin Rapide is expected to carry a £110,000 price tag when it goes on sale.
Cheap. (If you were the Sultan of Brunei)
P.S – If you don’t have the interest to attend the show in Frankfurt or want to desperately see the car, then you should take a look at the Aston Martin category page every day from today.
Temperatures are on higher side during this time of the year in Kuwait. Aston Martin engineers believed this was the finest place to try out the forthcoming Aston Martin Rapide, putting it through some heat testing and logging the response.
The Aston Martin Rapide was cruising on the streets of Kuwait when one attentive car buff took out his cam and began filming. The car was partly camouflaged.
Mercedes-Benz is supposedly developing a new V12 engine (so much for all the 6-cylinder + turbocharger = V12 performance+lower emissions bull shit theory).
This new powerplant is likely to make appearance in the next S-Class, and Aston Martin has also inked a deal with Mercedes for this engine.
Mercedes-Benz’ V12 unit will be used in the Aston Martin DB9 and upcoming Rapide after its 2012 release.
Aston Martin at present uses a 6.0-liter V12 Duratec engine sourced from Ford (If you are reading this for the first time, your Fiesta immediately develops a Bond car connection).
It is widely believed that the Aston Martin Rapide would use the same Ford-sourced V12 unit when it embarks production. In the future, Aston might swap the Merc engine in place of the Duratec. People are even saying Aston could delay production dates to bring in the Merc V12 from day one.
Things are muddled but one thing is clear. Aston Martins from 2012 will use Mercedes engines.
Spy photographers are unnecessary if you look at what Simon Gregg, a follower of Car Magazine has just caught on his cam- That’s right, he snapped a production model of the 4-door Aston in a parking lot without ANY camouflage. Take a bow Simon.
The car spied here could be one of the final prototypes before the actual car is shown at the Frankfurt Motor show in mid-September. The naked prototype finished in black, has its interiors soaked in red.
Poised to take on the 4-seat-4-door contenders like the stylish Porsche Panamera and the Mercedes Benz CLS, the Rapide is fitted with a 6.0-liter V12 engine that makes 470bhp and 600Nm of torque. Power will be directed to the rear wheels through a six-speed ZF automatic transmission with Aston’s Touchtronic control.
The Aston Martin Rapide will arrive at showrooms around the globe in 2010. Don’t expect it to cost any less than $200,000.
The Aston Martin Rapide, which is a 4-door sportscar from the British firm to challenge the Porsche Panamera and the Mercedes Benz CLS, is now closer than ever before. Aston Martin have issued a press release which means the curtains are going to rise very soon.
The car we knew, wasn’t all the far away from its d-day as it had shed most of its camouflage, the excess along the doors and the headlights were the only misleads in the recent spy shots.
An Aston 6.0-litre V12 throwing out no less than 470bhp (350kW) and 600Nm of torque will transfer the task to a Touchtronic gearbox, which will eventually reach the rear axle of the Aston Martin Rapide.
Aston Martin Director of Design Marek Reichman-
We wanted to make the most beautiful four-door sports car in the world
