First drive: Aston Martin Rapide

By Edric Pan In Gaydon, England

Aston Martin must have figured that we would be too weakkneed after seeing its spectacular Rapide saloon to actually drive the car.

Hence, after having flown halfway round the world to its headquarters, our "Rapide experience" was a passenger ride while Aston's development engineer had all the fun behind the wheel.

What we can report, however, is the Rapide is stunning, with a shape that makes boys shriek with delight and bigger boys reach for their chequebooks.

Under the skin, it is essentially a stretched Aston DB9 coupe, with an additional 30cm in length and two rear doors.

The car does not share any body panels with the DB9 but all the Aston design elements are there, from the long nose with its slim, swept-back headlamps to the low, flowing roof, teardrop-shaped windowline and fastback tail.

The DB9's shape lends itself effortlessly to this transformation and the Rapide comes across as the sleeker and more captivating of the two. It is possibly the world's most beautiful four-door.

It is not the world's most spacious four-door, though, primarily because it was never intended as a fat-cat limo but as a sports car with two extra seats.

This is apparent from the fact that the rear doors are markedly smaller than the front ones, making graceful entry to the back a bit of a challenge.

The rear cabin is bisected by a wide and high centre console (which houses air vents, cupholders and minor controls), so there is strictly room for only two.

The seats are elegantly sculpted buckets which (like the ones in front) are trimmed in soft, exquisitely stitched cowhide.

The space is snug for a six-footer, anyone taller will find his head brushing the roof and his knees pressing against the backs of the front seats.

The best seat is probably the one behind the steering wheel. From there you will have access to the same sonorous 6-litre V12 which powers the DB9, with its 470bhp and 600Nm of torque channelled to the rear wheels by a six-speed paddleshift-equipped autobox.

The Rapide weighs almost two tonnes, 200kg heavier than the DB9, but it seems tremendously fast. The factory claims it hits 100kmh in 5.3 seconds and with a top speed of 303kmh.