So how does it drive? HK Golfer was among the very first to test it. At the risk of sounding spoilt, the Rapide doesn’t feel that rapide; having an aristocratic V12 out front doesn’t automatically confer any accelerative advantage. The Aston will hit 100kph in 5.3sec; Porsche’s Panamera Turbo saloon is the closest this car has to a rival and is more than a second quicker. Even a humble Mercedes E500 can take a tenth out of that time. Of course it’s still a fast car; its extra weight means it’s just not as fast as the shape and the price might lead you to expect. It does its best work beyond 150kph, where mass counts for less and that slippery shape for more. Here, its urge feels elastic, unstrained and easily good for the claimed 296kph top speed, but how often will you get to experience it?
And the soundtrack isn’t as hardcore as the other Astons. The blip on start-up and the high, hard howl under load are lacking. There’s still a great mechanical thrash from out front, but it’s a little anti-climactic if you’ve driven the rest of the range.
As with the cabin and the looks, Aston claims it hasn’t compromised the Rapide’s dynamics just because it’s a four-door; this, it tells us, is still a sports car. And it feels like one as soon as you move off; there’s a lot of road noise from the bigger Bridgestones, and even in the softer of the two suspension settings the Aston’s harshness on a motorway is only borderline acceptable, though it absorbs bigger road craters with a refinement early DB9s wouldn’t recognize. But if you press it harder on a back road the extra 190kgs really shows and you’ll find its limits much earlier, with heave over crests and roll through bends. Tighten the damping and it’s much better without much loss in ride quality. For such a big car the Aston stays level and composed and you can make use of the feel and accuracy of the steering.
