Posts Tagged ‘Aston Martin’

Review: 2010 Aston Martin Rapide is a modern day Femme Fatale

Do you like noir? No, not the perfume, the literary and film genre. You know, hard-boiled crooks, wise-cracking private eyes, Los Angeles under cover of night and blondes so blonde they’ll kill you dead. Those blondes are, of course, are better known as femme fatales, and in truth, the color of their hair doesn’t really matter. Think Theda Bera, Rita Hayworth, Mary Astor, Barbara Stanwyck and Marlene Dietrich. And let’s not forget the lovely Lana Turner – she’s the one, in a case of life imitating art, with the daughter that killed Mickey Cohen’s strongman/goon Johnny Stompanato. In other words, women so pretty you’d throw your life away just so they know you’re throwing your life away.

Here’s the free, online-encyclopedia definition of femme fatale in case you’re still wondering: “An alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous and deadly situations.”

Let’s state up front that the 2010 Aston Martin Rapide is not, to our knowledge, unsafe in any way, shape or form. But man, oh man, is it seductive enough to make us overlook every single bad thing about it. That, or walk into an uncovered manhole cover while staring at it. Anyhow, “irresistible desire” and “compromising situations” are this British superstar’s raison d’etre. Philip Marlowe would eat his fedora just for a ride. Thankfully, we had to perform no such theatrics: Aston Martin simply let us borrow their car.

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First Drive: 2011 Aston Martin V12 Vantage

There’s an irony in the fact that when the Aston Martin V12 Vantage was launched last year, it was barred from sale in the USA. The irony being that with this car, Aston was following a time-honored American concept. Take your most compact bodyshell, and ram under the hood your most beef-fed, honkin’ engine. It’s called the musclecar. Of course, Aston’s interpretation of the musclecar theme is rather more suave, sophisticated and aristocratic than, say, a ’70 Chevy Chevelle SS454, but the thinking behind it ain’t so very far removed.

So why didn’t it come here? Because as originally engineered for the rest of the world, the front end of the car was so densely packed with engine that there wasn’t the space for the structures needed to meet US crash regulations. At the required barrier impact speed, the dummy’s chest recorded a borderline deceleration figure.

But customers worldwide were meanwhile chomping to get at the car, so the engineers got to thinking. Analysis of the computer models and turned up a location where some extra aluminum longitudinal members could be installed to change the load path and soften the deceleration. It tested well, and this car is the result. The extra weight is insignificant. And the performance, handling and styling are unaffected by the crash mods.

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