Regular readers may remember a couple of months ago when i visited the Morgan factory I happened across Charles Morgan’s limited edition Aeromax.

A couple of weeks ago I happened across Dave Richards, personal transport this fabulous ‘large and in charge’ Aston Martin Rapide while visiting Prodrive.

The Rapide is Aston Martin’s top of the range 4 door saloon, a successor to the Aston Martin V8 based Series 1 Aston Martin Lagonda of 1974/74 of which just 7 were built.

The 2010 Rapide is powered by a 470 hp 5935cc / 362 cui V12 …

that is shared in common with both the DB9 and V12 Vanquish.

This is only the second Rapide I have ever seen and it still surprises me how graceful this four dour DB9 looks.

Surprisingly this range topping model of of a well known British Marque is actually assembled at a dedicated Magna Steyr plant in Graz, Austria.

The standstill to 62mph performance time of 5.2 seconds and top speed of 184 mph will undoubtedly helped a near standard Rapide take second in class during the 24 hour race at the Nurburgring in 2010.

More on Aston Martin and the Rapide Luxe can be seen up the Drive Channel.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Austrian built edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !