The design development of the forthcoming four-door, four-seater Aston Martin Rapide was heavily affected and intertwined with the recent transition of the brand itself: from Ford Group ‘jewel in the crown' to independent player, and from super car niche manufacturer to its now GT-expanded range and scope. Car Design News exclusively reveals the long and involved design gestation for this very special supercar.
The elegant boneline of the Rapide
Aston Marin Design Director Marek Reichman
Aston Martin's design studio in Gaydon, UK
The idea for a modern-day four-door Aston is credited to CEO and chairman Ulrich Bez. Current design director Marek Reichman says it was already the source of much discussion when he joined the business in June 2005 and had been part of his conversations with Bez in the process of getting hired, as he recalls of starting for the firm, "I had to get off the plane running...and sketching".
Reichman says the initial sketches ranged from ones that were "quite brutal and aggressive" to others that were "very elegant". A couple of scale models were produced at his time but being no fan of the very
The idea for a modern-day four-door Aston is credited to CEO and chairman Ulrich Bez. Current design director Marek Reichman says it was already the source of much discussion when he joined the business in June 2005 and had been part of his conversations with Bez in the process of getting hired, as he recalls of starting for the firm, "I had to get off the plane running...and sketching".
Reichman says the initial sketches ranged from ones that were "quite brutal and aggressive" to others that were "very elegant". A couple of scale models were produced at his time but being no fan of the very squared-off 1970s and 80s four-door Aston Martin Lagonda, Reichman pushed for a sketch at the more elegant end of the spectrum and the resulting Rapide concept - named after another limited production four-door Aston from the early 1960s - was built in-house and appeared just six months later at the Detroit motor show in January 2006.
At this point the design development trail seems to go a little cold. Despite largely critical acclaim for the concept's success in stretching the curvaceous sportscar look of the DB9 into a five-meter, four-seater Grand Tourer, the project could only go so far without further investment. Despite Aston's vastly improved sales fortunes compared to previous years, its then parent company Ford was in severe financial difficulty and put Aston up for sale in late summer 2006. Bought the following March by a UK-led consortium backed with Kuwati money, the first two projects to be given the green light by the new owners in June 2007 were the new Design Studio at Gaydon and a production version of the Rapide.
The design team behind the Rapide was Marek Reichman (exterior and project leader), Matt Hill (interior) Libby Rooke (color and trim) and Carl Dibsdale (head of modeling). The team moved into their new design HQ in Gaydon in December 2007 - the building went up in an amazingly rapid seven months - and the exterior design took the lead on the production project, partly for reasons of longer tooling lead times says Reichman.
All the design was done in CAD. Only one exterior clay model was made although Reichman says the clay was worked on by hand for a considerable amount of time.
Despite the production model's obvious similarities to the concept and retained details - it utilizes the same wheelbase, wheel and tire size, and the same V12 engine placed in the same location - Reichman considers its overall exterior to be "all-new". The production model has grown slightly over the concept - 25mm taller and just under 10mm longer. He says the key aim in going from concept to production was to "hone and refine the exterior style" but with "elegance still as the most important thing", as he adds, "we really spent the time improving the interior package in terms of rear seat ingress and egress plus the amount of usable and perceived space while at the same time maintaining the very elegant exterior appearance. Although it is taller it doesn't appear visually that much taller. It doesn't have any of that feeling of just being a stretched car, it's now got it's own character and very different visually from a DB9 and DBS."
The biggest exterior difference on the production Rapide compared to the concept is the bold new crease that extends from the signature side air intake behind the front wheelarch across the front door and just into the rear door panel (this is just below the shoulder line that extends from the rear in the opposite direction).
Details that differentiate the Rapide from other Astons beyond its extra doors and greater size include distinct single front headlamps (Astons normally sport four in total) with new boomerang-shaped running light accents along the lamp tops for ‘down the road' recognition. Another is the more coherent grille that now features bold vertical and horizontal mesh on the lower part as well as the upper, to create the feeling of one grille separated by a bar, rather than two grilles.
The bigger interior - especially at the rear - is an area of more obvious change. The concept was very tight in the back and while the production model is far from limousine-like - Reichman argues more rear-focused cars should be the preserve of any future Lagonda - the Rapide will still fit four tall adults either side of its interior-defining high central transmission tunnel running the length of the cabin. Targeting customers who rejected the 2+2 DB9 or DBS on practicality grounds was an important aspect, as made clear by the Aston design team's development of a bespoke-trim baby seat and the commissioning of Nike golf bag, custom-fit for the Rapide.
Only one interior model was made but Reichman says quite significant interior changes were made right up until the time of the production car's official unveil at the September 2009 Frankfurt motor show: "Because we're a small company we're able to do things very quickly and make changes close to the car coming to launch. You can go through all the seating and packaging bucks you want to create the internal volume and space but once we started to drive the early prototype cars we found we wanted a greater feeling of space, so very late on all the areas around the B-pillar and the rear header were changed to maximize the space. We changed form and shape."
Indeed Reichman told Car Design News that even after the Frankfurt show car's unveil, while interior surfaces could no longer be changed, new foils or colors still had an opportunity to be introduced. The car is already full of great details like cast-aluminum and interior grab handles with thick leather loops that better sit against the bodywork by being magnetized, and exposed stitching on the seating that emphasize rather than hide how the leather is attached.
Viewed from all angles, through these eyes at least, the Rapide is head and shoulders the most beautiful four-seater luxury sportscar in the world. Which is just as well for Aston, as it wants to sell 1500 per annum and it will have been almost five years in the gestation when deliveries of the £150,000 car finally start from March 2010.Related Articles:
Aston Martin Rapide concept - Detroit 2006
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