Aston Martin Rapide S

It's been awhile since Aston Martin launched their first-ever four-door premium saloon car, the Rapide, and even though it's not quite as aggressive as either the DB9 or the DBS, it's still worth it for a four-door saloon car that is quintessentially British, despite the fact that it's been made by the Austrians. Really? Austrians? Says here it's made in Graz, Austria, so this isn't quite British at all but happily though, there's a brand new version that is even more British than before...

2014 Aston Martin Rapide S

The brand new Aston Martin Rapide S looks pretty much the same as the old model but take note that everything's changed for the new model aside from the new front grille that looks unorthodox for the Rapide S. I don't know why but I think that new front view kinda spoils the beauty of this car. The new front grille kinda looks like...and I'm not joking...like a Hyundai because come to think of it, it looks more hexagonal shaped like any other current Hyundais and it seems that some of the designers had gone a bit succumbed to hallyu or the Korean wave.

Although with the stupid Hyundai-esque grille that spoils the new Rapide S' looks, there's some good news that this car is no longer made in Austria because it's now made to the home of the Aston Martins and in the same factory where they made the new Vanquish. Wanna guess where?

What I have here is an ATLAS and what I'm gonna do is flip the pages, and then when I see Europe, I head to United Kingdom, and one part of United Kingdom is Warwickshire, and one part of Warwickshire is a small village called Gaydon. That's right, it's now built in Aston Martin's Gaydon plant in Warwickshire, England and this is a great call because it's no longer been made by the Germans because if it does, it feels like a British was revealed to be a traitor and he came from its German opponents. We're talking about Anglo-German wars back there and if this was happened again, I don't really know what's going on in a great island we called Great Britain.

2014 Aston Martin Rapide S

Anyway, enough about WWII jokes because anything more than that and it's game over for us. Let's move on to the way it drives and how it feels to be as a driver's car. Anyway, while this is an updated model, there's something else about its dynamics and let's start at the engine. Like any V12-powered Astons of today such as the DB9 and the Vanquish, the Rapide S still has the same 6.0L V12 engine but now, it's boosted from 477HP to 558HP of power output while torque output is now 457lb-ft of torque. 558HP of power... That's about 35HP more than the new Maserati Quattroporte GTS' 3.8 V8 and of course, it still has the same 6-speed flappy paddle gearbox which is just right rather than the overloaded 8-speed gearbox from the new Maserati Quattroporte. It's also 38HP more than the Porsche Panamera Turbo but let's not forget that in the straights, the Panamera Turbo can easily smoke both the Rapide S and the New Quattroporte by a margin and on the track, ditto.

In terms of top speed, the Rapide S was now improved from the old model's 188 mph to 190 mph, which is quicker than the old model but as a warning, it's 1mph short than the Maserati Quattroporte GTS and annoyingly, matches the same top speed as the facelifted Porsche Panamera Turbo which comes with a double-clutch transmission which is unpronounceable in German. What was that called? Dopple? Dopplekupling...um...doppelkupplungsgetriebe? Oh yeah! Doppelkupplungsgetriebe! Anyway, Rapide S, like any other Astons, doesn't had that because it sticks to its TOUCHTRONIC 2 6-speed flappy paddles.

2014 Aston Martin Rapide S interior

What's annoying about the Rapide S is its weight gain and because it spends too much dinner parties, it now weighs 1990kg, 40kg more than the old Rapide, but despite the added weight, it's still as vicious to drive as the late punk rock icon Sid Vicious, who was from Sex Pistols. With the right weight distribution, low centre of gravity, double wishbone suspensions, and with lower polar moment of inertia, it still works just as fine and for the real fun, you might spend the whole hours performing burnouts on an open space. This is exactly what it feels like when Sid Vicious died from overdose at his young age and if those tires got blown, you know what this is, don't you? He he he...

2014 Aston Martin Rapide S interior

And like any other Aston Martins, it's quiet and comfortable and the new Rapide S really drives beautifully, making it one of the most epic 4-door grand tourers made for everyday uses. You can use it while going for a dinner party, going to the shops, on a date, or you just wanna do anything for business and leisure. After all, because with all of the tweaked stuff for the new model, the Rapide S from Aston Martin is definitely one of the best four-door supercars ever made, probably because of its promising theory that it can provide the comfort of a luxury car with the dynamism of an exotic. Still, if you're a selfie, you just really wish you want to drive one of those...

Photo: Aston Martin