Supercar Sightings: Aston Martin Rapide

As a bonafide “automotive journalist”, I often find myself dreaming about luxury cars I would love to have parked up in my garage. From 2011 models only, these currently include the Fezza 458 Italia, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera and the 2011 Ariel Atom for a nifty track day.

But for an outing with the lads or a nice cruise through the English countryside, there is no vehicle I would like to drive more than the Aston Martin Rapide. So I was naturally excited to see my first Rapide in the flesh on a busy day in Central London.

Make no mistake, this thing is a piece of art. With a hand-crafted engine from Gaydon, this AM comes equipped with an all alloy quad overhead cam 48 valve 5935cc V12 engine. That’s certainly a mouthful to say to any car novice but needless to say the setup produces 470 horsepower at a lofty 6000 rpm with a noise that is sure to excite any passer-by. So there is literally no need to get messy, the Rapide has as standard a “Touchtronic 2″ six-speed gearbox with an electronic shift-by-wire control system. Again, that’s too much information, but all you need to know is that flicking the magnesium paddle shifters will help you achieve the ridiculous speeds this 4-door car shouldn’t be capable of.

According to Chief Executive Ulrich Bez, there now exists an Aston Martin for every different segment of the (extremely wealthy) market and this Rapide fills the gap for the typical 2+2 modern family. Except from what we’ve heard, the rear seats really are reserved for the plus 2′s as headroom and leg space is limited. But no worry, with side angle looks like the image above (which is a little blurry I apologise) you will always be riding in style and ready to turn heads no matter where you are.

What I did find quite amazing was the fact that when I first strolled up to the car from the front, I knew it was a different AM from those seen earlier in my life, but it still seemed to have the normal Martin dimensions. At an extremely quick glance I might have mistaken it for a DBS with the menacing grille and air intakes on top of the hood. Walking round the car you do notice the two extra doors, but you also realise how beautifully they have been added to the overall design – this car truly is something and I can’t wait to see my next one. Maybe I’ll even be able to get inside.

A Study Of Opposites At A Stoplight

I pulled up to the 4-way intersection as I headed towards the highway, and I noticed something. A strange sense of something interesting. I looked over to my left, and realized the silver compact hatchback in the turning lane was actually a Chevy Volt, not a Saturn Astra or a VW Golf like you might think at first glance.

It’s the first time I’ve seen a Volt in person, and I was pleasantly surprised. In real life, it’s a hunkered-down low slung looking thing, without the normal reek of hybrid dullness about it. Great looking car. And considering the relative importance of the Volt in the scheme of things, that would be a good enough spotting for me for one day. But let’s zoom the frame out a bit here.

Hmm… A highway on-ramp, a Toyota Minivan for the local Toyota dealer, a stoplight, a… wait. A Cateram 7?

Now that’s not something you see every day! I don’t know if this is a Cateram, Doonkervort, Birkin, Dax, or any of the other 14 million different Lotus 7 clones, but regardless, seeing a Seven on the streets in Raleigh NC (of all places!) is pretty damn strange. Seeing one at the same light as a Chevy Volt is even stranger. Really, how different can two cars get?

On the one hand, you’ve got the Volt, which is so packed full of batteries and computers and electric motors and pistons and seat heaters and computer screens and plugs and gas tanks and probably one of those nefarious “black boxes.” On the other side, you’ve got a 7. Which has… an engine! Some wheels! Slabs of metal to keep water from the front tires off your face! A roof you can put up, if you really feel like it! I feel like two cars can’t get much more different than a Volt and a 7. And to see both of them… at one stoplight… in Raleigh. Unusual to say the least.

Which would I rather have? The 7, of course. This is CarThrottle, not Gizmodo. Sevens stand for everything that is righteous and awesome about sports cars, a design so good it’s been in production basically unchanged since the late 50′s. Light is still the easiest way to go fast. And I’d imagine that by the time the Volt is out of date and out of production, they’ll still be making 7′s, because people will still want them.

(Ed’s note: sorry for the low resolution and general crappiness of these photos. Still, Camera Phones are getting better!)

The Sound Of A Spinning Dorito

Everything I know about rotary engines can be summed up in one sarcastic sentence: “Hey, communism worked in theory too.” That might be oversimplifying things: we can also add “boost goes in, apex seals come out” to the list while we’re at it. It’s safe to say that Felix Wankel’s invention never really achieved the widespread popularity some originally thought it would, but it can’t be said that the rotary doesn’t have it’s loyalists. Rotarys may be torqueless, thirsty, failure-prone, and oil-slurping emissions monsters, but they do sort of dominate on the racetrack.

This post isn’t going to be a “how the hell does a Rotary work, anyway” post -- there’s Wikipedia for that. (Although ask and you shall receive, if there’s any interest in such an article.) One of the greatest things about these engines is the sound an uncorked Rotary makes when it’s being wrung out. So sit back and enjoy the dulcet tones of the Dorito Spinner, one of the oddest engines ever to find it’s way into a production car.

This first video is an RX-7 so far from stock, it should probably be called an RX-10.5. It’s actually got a 3 rotor engine (the 12a/13b were 2-rotors) made up of RX4/5 parts as well as a big T04B boosting at 20psi. This one looks extremely rapid.

Another triple-rotor RX-7 here, this one a third-generation (FD3S) with a Eunos Cosmo 20b 3-rotor boosted to kingdom come. The sound this car makes on boost is just nuts. Notice the welded differential in the back, too? Hardcore.

A 13b (2-rotor) 3rd gen RX7 drag racing in Trinidad(!) The legend of the spinning Dorito has reached far beyond Hiroshima, it seems. This thing takes off like it just got rear-ended by a dump truck. Insane.

I have to assume that when the apocalypse comes, it’s going to sound a little like this. Oh lord. 7 second drag rotary is an impressive sight indeed. This one’s another triple-rotor 20B in an FD chassis RX-7. How much power? Probably a gazillion.

Rotaries are so light and can make so much power they manage to find their way into all sorts of race cars they were never intended to. For instance, how about this 9-second Datsun 510 Wagon?

Ahh, a humble VW Beetle. Little air-cooled flat four, 50 horsepower, the People’s Car… wait, no, drag monster with a turbo 13b in the back, pulling a wheelie on the bars halfway down the track. That’s more like it.

The Datsun 1200: Datsun’s competitor for the Toyota Corolla back in the 70′s. A cute little coupe with a 1200cc pushrod 4, the original couldn’t really punch its way through a wet paper bag. This one’s been augmented with… yup, a turbo 13b rotary engine. It’s starting to seem like everything is better with a little rotary under the hood.

If 2 rotors is good (13b), and 3 rotors is better (20b), then a naturally-aspirated 4-rotor in an RX8 sucking in air through 4 individual throttle bodies is the best. Right? Right.

I’m not the first person to point this out, but a Japanese car has only won LeMans once, and it was powered by a rotary. The 787B’s 4-rotor 26B engine put out 930 horsepower (naturally aspirated!) in qualifying trim, and 700 or so in competition trim. If that’s not a rotary sound to end a post on, I don’t know what is. What else would you suggest?