Beauty and the Beast: Aston’s Rapide and Porsche’s Panamera battle on the Ring!
08/22/2008, 4:49 PM
By Drew Johnson
Scheduled for an official presentation at the 2009 Geneva show, The Aston Martin Rapide and the Porsche Panamera were seen recently duking it out on the Nurburgring.
The more exclusive of the two will be the new four-door from England: Following the Rapide Concept shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit back in 2006, Aston Martin is now coming up with the real machine.
Former owner Ford had put the project on hold when they decided to sell the biggest pack of shares. After selling this to the group lead by David Richards, one of the first decisions was to revive the project and start developing the production version Rapide.
Together with the body, the DB9 will provide its platform and its V12-engine. The latter will be tuned to 480 bhp while it delivers 450 bhp in the DB9. The car is believed to be released in 2010.
The Panamera takes over design elements from the 911 range, however, there will be significant differences. While the first has always kept its rear-mounted boxer engine, the newcomer will do with a choice of three front-mounted motors, though set back to the centre of the car as much as possible.
The entry-level unit will be Volkswagen’s 3.5-litre six-cylinder unit developing 300 bhp, while Porsche’s own drivetrain will be a direct-injection eight-cylinder petrol engine, available in naturally-aspirated guise (350 bhp) and with twin-turbo (560 bhp). That should be enough to beat out the competition for a while: Mercedes’ CLS 63 AMG comes up with “only” 514 bhp. However, should Stuttgart make the CLS even stronger, Zuffenhausen would strike back with the Porsche GT’s 700-bhp ten-cylinder unit.
The target for the Panamera is to be a true sportscar while at the same time it shall be a family-car for every-day with four full seats, easy access to the rear and a luggage compartment of around 450 litres. When it hits the road in 2009, Porsche hopes to be able to sell 20,000 units annually – and to jump over the barrier of 100,000 sold cars per year.
08/22, 4:52 PM
posted by:
anyclearer
astin makes the porsche look like **** side by side
08/22, 5:06 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
Holy page redesign! I click “Refresh” and BAM! New world!
It’s a bit slower, though, but it should get up to speed in a couple of days.
08/22, 5:21 PM
posted by:
projectzr1
Most likely cuz its got a lot more moving parts to this new page. but hopefully they get all the bugs out in a few days.
and as much as i am a big Porsche fan i’m gettng higher hopes for the AM Rapide. The Porsche just doesn’t make the cut visually for me nor does it sound to enticing
08/22, 5:24 PM
posted by:
Jordan
what page redesign?
yes, the rapide makes the panamera look really ugly.
08/22, 5:43 PM
posted by:
e46Ne90
wow love the low long and sleek rapide although front overhang is way too long
08/22, 5:48 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
They took it back to the old way rather quickly. I kind of like it this way, actually. I like being able to see how many comments are within each thread.
08/22, 6:59 PM
posted by:
ktulu
astin makes everything look loke “studd” side to side
08/22, 7:54 PM
posted by:
rds130
Good luck finding 20,000 Panamera buyers with the Rapide looking that good…
08/22, 8:43 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
Me to, beatus. I hope they’re at least going to put the counter device back in.
08/22, 9:58 PM
posted by:
JetmanOTC
Ok, but there still 4-doors…
08/22, 10:03 PM
posted by:
Astonman12
well LLN is wrong again, the 2009 DB9 is bumped up to 470 hp so who knows what the Rapide will have. 480 sounds good for it tho. cant wait for its debut!!
08/23, 12:00 AM
posted by:
Fromes
man, with the way these cars look I can’t Imangine that the ugly and bulky looking porsche deserves to be mentioned in the same sentance as the Aston…also Im pretty sure that these cars are not gonna compete in the same price range anyway..
08/23, 12:59 AM
posted by:
bigp
the rapide needs more power
08/23, 5:44 PM
posted by:
zoomzoomer
On looks alone, Porsche should be embarrassed to even consider pricing the Panamera anywhere close to the Rapide.. regardless of power and performance, how many would choose that bloated hatchback over a rolling piece of sculpture, even at half the price?
08/23, 5:59 PM
posted by:
deutschetouring1337
Its all the damn ads in the back loading, getting tired of all the ads. Oh well they have to make money somehow with all the accidental clicks.
08/23, 6:44 PM
posted by:
Rafa LL
Panamera, a blind person could tell how ugly it is.
And this is coming from a Porsche lover, my dad owns one.
Aston Martin only needs a better image, separating it from Ford.
08/24, 12:54 AM
posted by:
CJC
Rafa LL, I thought the sale of Aston Martin from Ford to a consortium of investors was enough to separate AM from Ford. >_<
08/24, 2:33 AM
posted by:
qpt_dude
I believe LLN photographers think that the Rapide is much more stunning as they took 5 pics of it and only 1 Panamera only shot.
08/24, 2:34 AM
posted by:
qpt_dude
Wait, why are they both on Nurburgring at the same time? I thought that they were pre-production mules?
08/24, 4:09 AM
posted by:
MugenSentraKen
=====>> that is a good question qpt_dude…what in the world constituted them to be on the ring at the same time and they both aren’t in production yet?
08/24, 9:39 PM
posted by:
zoomzoomer
Maybe they were hoping the bison would gore the Panamera, thinking it was some wild pig or rhino or something.
08/25, 5:00 AM
posted by:
DriveCritic
The Aston Martin, on looks and brand prestige, is way out of Porsche’s league. Although I would bet that the Panamera is going to be the better performance car, the Rapide will sacrifice a bit of performance for exclusivity and that appeals strongly to the people that can afford these types of cars.
—
I’ve linked to this article on http://DriveCritic.com/
08/25, 9:45 AM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
Does anyone care what drive critic links? I’ve visited his site and it is a waste of time.
I’ve sure the Panamera will sell to the Porchtards because they buy anything the freaks from Stuttgart afix their brand to, but that vehicle is an embarassment in automotive design.
08/25, 11:07 AM
posted by:
56oval
The Aston Martin is drop dead. The Porsche… not so much.
08/26, 10:16 AM
posted by:
oldman420
I really like the porche look that they are going with, it’s kind of like a charger with european class. But I do have to agree that the astin is pure european class and is absolutly gorgeous, but will be out performed.
01/05, 1:10 AM
posted by:
prelude4life
the reason why they took more picture of the aston martin is because they were afraid if they took too many picture of the porsche their camera would break!