Performance
Ratings: 4/5
Our test took place at the end of February,
so Aston opted to provide a Rapide on winter tires. That inevitably makes for a
penalty against our timing gear, but in spite of that, you can still see the
improvement in performance that Aston has made to this car in the numbers we
witnessed.
Truth is, we already know this is a
sub-5.0sec car to 60mph. Our 2010 test, in a 470bhp Rapide on Bridgestone
Potenza tires, recorded a 4.9sec sprint. The new Rapide S, shod less
appropriately for standing starts, takes 5.3sec over the same pitch. With two
tons to get moving and 550bhp to put down, the surprising thing is how well
those winter tires cope. They allow you to use most of the available engine
power in first gear and all of it once you hit second.
The
new Rapide S, shod less appropriately for standing starts, takes 5.3sec over
the same pitch.
Despite its considerably poorer traction,
the new car was only a tenth of a second slower than the old one to 100mph. It
was the faster car of the two to 120mph and a full 3.3sec quicker to 150mph -
at which point the end of MIRA’s mile straight called a halt to any further
comparison.
A Panamera Turbo will nudge past 160mph on
the same straight; even with die right tires, we doubt the Aston could have
done that. The current BMW M5 is quicker still and might have hit 170mph were
it not for its speed limiter. So the Rapide can’t be considered the four-door
performance king, but its outright pace still feels mighty. Bentley’s new
Continental GTC V8, for example, took a second longer to hit 150mph.
Speed, however, is only half the story in
this wonderfully traditional-feeling long-nosed GT. It is matched by an
orchestral V12 soundtrack and accompanied by luxurious, full-cream mechanical
refinement
The ZF automatic gearbox’s shifts aren’t
whip crack fast, but they’re perfectly smooth. Aston’s engine insulation allows
just enough warble and whine into the cabin to make the car seem expensive, but
not a hint too much. It’s a wonderful combination and an increasingly
distinguishing one in a market where old-school mechanical richness is
routinely sacrificed for ever-greater efficiency.
Track notes
Dry Circuit
·
Aston Martin Rapide S: 1min 17.9sec
·
Porsche Panamera Turbo: 1min 14.0sec
·
The winter tires add perhaps three seconds to
the Rapide’s time (the last one clocked 1:15.4). Limit precision and stability
were compromised, but balance was still delightful.
·
Lateral loads are too high to keep the big Aston
perfectly stuck through T4.
·
Brakes last well - but probably partly on
account of the winter tires' lack of grip. Stopping power is strong into T7 and
T1.
Dry
Circuit
Wet Circuit
·
Aston Martin Rapide S: 1min 17.6sec
·
Porsche Panamera Turbo: 1min 10.4sec
·
Porsche’s time was when the wet track was much
grippier; Rapide’s time is good. Traction and braking are assured, and the car
is beautifully controllable on the limit.
·
Rapide falls into the kind of lazy, benign slide
around T7 that only well sorted, long-wheelbase, front-engined GTs can pull
off.
·
Standing water interrupts traction under hard
acceleration out of T8. Everywhere else, there’s loads of grip.
Wet
Circuit
Acceleration: 8deg C, dry
·
Aston Martin Rapide S: Standing quarter mile
13.8sec at 109.5mph, standing km 23.8sec at 144.9mph, 30-70mph 4.3sec, 30-70mph
in fourth 8.7sec
·
Porsche Panamera Turbo (2009): Standing quarter
mile 12.5sec at 116.0mph, standing km 22.5sec at 148.9mph, 30-70mph 3.3sec,
30-70mph in fourth 6.4sec
Aston
Martin Rapide S
Porsche
Panamera Turbo (2009)
Braking: 60-0mph: 3.03sec
Braking
On the limit
Pick the ideal set-up for a car in which
you wanted to achieve the most benign rear-drive attitude imaginable and the
blueprint wouldn’t look dissimilar to this Aston’s: a long chassis, a near
three-meter wheelbase, an engine in the front, spot-on weight distribution, a
limited- slip differential and lots of power.
Our test car braked with excellent pedal
feel and in short order, given its winter rubber. It also turned with great
enthusiasm for such a long car, with little roll and a well contained rate. Its
balance is neutral, erring just towards under steer on a steady throttle.
Turn near the limit with the merest hint of
braking, though, and it’s deliciously easy to unsettle the rear end. From then
on, introducing a smidge, a bit or a lot of power will give you a corresponding
amount of over steer. It’s absurdly easy and would almost be ridiculously out
of character was Aston Martin not correct in its assertion: at heart, the
Rapide is still a sport car.
Ride and handling
Ratings: 4.5/5
Those winter tires made as marked an
imposition in this department as they did in the previous one. First and
foremost, the extra squidge in the tread blocks makes itself apparent through
the steering if you’re lucky enough to be in a car with - as the Rapide S has -
a hydraulic rack that offers excellent feel and accuracy.
That steering sets the Rapide apart from
most luxury cars. A Porsche Panamera’s rack is heavier in feel, perhaps, but it
doesn’t contain such linear, predictable response. You can forget any of the
rest as a comparison. “The Rapide remains a sports car at heart,” Aston told
us. When it comes to the way it steers, we know what they mean.
Its ride, on the other hand, isn’t too far
removed from that of most luxury cars. There are now three, rather than two,
stages to the adaptive damping system, but the standard, softer setting is fine
in virtually all conditions. It keeps respectably tight check of body movements
but also rounds away the worst bumps nicely. The winter rubber might have
assisted this secondary composure a little, while also contributing to a touch
more road noise than (a) we’d remembered from the Rapide and (b) than you’d
expect to find in any other luxury four-door.
The
Rapide now has three damper modes and a composed ride.
Again, it’s a price to pay for the
excellent inherent balance that the Aston possesses. No other five-meter-long
car flows in the way it does, composed and controlled and with well-honed
damping and steering. The control weights are all absolutely spot on, too. All
this goes to make the Rapide S a particularly easy and rewarding car to drive
at any speed.
Under the skin
Pictured here are the weakening holes that
are pressed into the under bonnet structure. They reduce the pressure under
which it deforms, and also causes you to worry unnecessarily about it when it's
open in high winds.
Pictured
here are the weakening holes that are pressed into the under bonnet structure.
Crush On You
Aston Martin has had to get creative when
seeking ways to make the Rapide S's nose meet the latest round of pedestrian
impact regulations, because the two most obvious methods - increasing bonnet
height to allow more crush space beneath the metalwork, or fitting explosive
rods to achieve the same thing - were two things it wanted to avoid.
Instead, it has managed to lower the engine
by 19mm in the chassis and in turn manoeuver the strut braces downwards. The
grille is on sprung clips so that in an impact it pings back out of the way,
while the bonnet is weakened by carefully positioned holes in its structural
members so that, when struck by a pedestrian's leg or head, it deforms more
easily.
