Aston Martin Rapide

The Aston Martin Rapide is a four-door, high-performance sport sedan, which British luxury marque Aston Martin plans to introduce in late 2009 to compete with the Maserati Quattroporte and Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, along with the upcoming Audi A7, Lamborghini Estoque, Porsche Panamera and BMW Gran Turismo. It was first presented as a concept car at the North American International Auto Show in 2006 and will be produced on the AM VH platform. The Rapide name is a reference to the Lagonda Rapide, a sedan produced by Lagonda, now part of Aston Martin. The car is based on an Aston Martin DB9.

Aston Martin has announced that the Rapide will be built at a dedicated plant at the Magna Steyr facility in Graz, Austria. Production will start in 2009. One new feature that may appear on the production version is a full-length glass roof.