Posted on: Aug 01, 2012 | 8,352 reads

Aston Martin Giving Rapide the Vanquish Treatment

565-horsepower Rapide S could emerge as a four-door Vanquish.

For a company with just one platform, Aston Martin sure manages to stay in the news a lot. In June Aston released the new Vanquish, followed just a couple of weeks later by spy shots of a revised Rapide prototype at the Nurburgring. Now it appears that those two vehicles may grow a lot closer than expected. At the time, the intelligence was that the Rapide would get the 520-horsepower version of the 6.0-liter V12 found in the DBS. But the DBS is being discontinued, replaced by the new Vanquish.

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As a result, reports from the UK now suggest the updated Rapide will get the Vanquish's 565hp engine. But the powerplant may not be the only thing the new Rapide S will share with the new Vanquish. Camouflage on the test mule hides its form, but sources expect the new model to borrow some of the Vanquish's design cues. Of course both the engine block and basic design language are already shared across most of Aston's line-up. But with these changes, the Rapide could emerge as something closer to a four-door Vanquish. That could help the British automaker boost sales, which currently stand at half of its expected numbers.