Official Image of Aston Martin Rapide

The Aston Martin Rapide is inching closer and closer to production. Launch is still about a year away and Aston Martin has decided to give us a little more to look over until then.

Official and beautiful! That's the image we have of the new Rapide, offering a further look on how the car has survived the translation from concept-speak to production.

Check out the blacked-out mockup headlights, a la' One-77, as well as the silver color. Something special about those headlights, huh? Not really, often the pre-production models don't have the final units available. So don't expect the taillights to remain intact either.

Now I'm a big Aston Martin fan so I'm not exactly impartial, but it's amazing. It truly is a 4-door sports car, an Aston Martin with 2 extra doors. That's really how it should be too, unlike some others in the segment. Coughs Porsche Coughs. I've ragged on the Panamera enough previously though, I'll spare you my dislike for that particular vehicle.

The official renderings released a little while ago do show the headlights though and the vehicle almost exactly. In fact from what I can tell, the production model actually looks better then the concept. Crazy but true. The side body lines of the Rapide are a lot more defined, with more pronounced side sculpting. Also new is a side body line extending from the front vent to into the beginning of the rear doors.

I'm impressed, with the Rapide Aston Martin can continue it's winning streak of recent models. Set to be priced around $200,000, the Rapide will be the most expensive of the 4-door "coupes", and a worthy model to bear the legendary name. Aston Martin expects to build between 1000 and 2000 units a year, with a production on-sale date sometime next year.