Why Aston Martin Rapide is British and Austrian | Sjoerd’s Facts 327

Aston Martin was allowed to develop a four-door again under the direction of Ford, but the American owner at the time never saw the market launch of the sports sedan himself.

It’s not that the car didn’t come, for Ford it stayed as a concept car presented under its definitive callsign. In this episode of Sjoerds Weetjes, Sjoerd van Bilsen delves into the early years of Rapide.

Pre-production Aston Martin Rapide models

On his birthday, Sjoerd was on the production line of one of the first Rapides, after which he was allowed to drive one of the pre-production models. That was in 2009. It was three years after the Rapide debuted as a concept car at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Ford’s hometown of Detroit.

The English car manufacturer in American hands then expressed interest in introducing a sports sedan, such as the Panamera that Porsche had in its delivery program. The German counterpart to Aston Martin had a lot of success with its five-door “sports sedan” and Aston Martin wanted to capitalize on this with a model like this.

The Panamera effect remained with the Aston Martin. Sjoerd van Bilsen explains why in this episode of Sjoerds Weetjes. He takes you back in time and begins his story in 2006 and then ends with the end of production of the Rapide in 2013. He points out how special the production line was. He explains why the Rapide could not build on the success of the Panamera. Sjoerd shows you what a nice feature the sports sedan is.

Sjoerd’s facts

Sjoerds Weetjes is a permanent video section from Autovisie that can be followed via Autovisie.nl and YouTube. In this video series, Sjoerd discusses different models. Either he introduces you to a completely new model, which he presents to you in his own way with an exclusive story, or he tells you the story behind a specific model. He has previously filmed a video covering Aston Martin’s V12 Vantage, the one-off Victor, the Vanquish Zagato and the GT12.