Four-door coupes like the Aston Martin Rapide can
offer a pretty compelling best-of-both-worlds proposition, but sometimes
they're too big and too expensive for their own good. We can't help but wonder,
then, if it isn't time that Aston Martin make a smaller alternative, with the
Rapide due to be replaced by a new EV. Something just like this.
Rendered by X-Tomi Design is an elongated take on
the new Vantage, stretched digitally to accommodate four doors (and an extra set
of seats in the back) – and looking even more like a Fisker.
With the DB9-based Rapide hovering closer to the US$
250k mark, a slightly lower-end model would do a better job of taking on the
Porsche Panamera, which starts out at $85k in base spec and maxes out at short
of US$ 200k in top-of-the-line Turbo S E-Hybrid Executive trim.
It'd be a suitable foil as well to the forthcoming
four-door Mercedes-AMG GT – likely to be powered by the same engine – and to a
possible 8 Series Gran Coupe, should BMW choose to build one. But we're getting
way ahead of ourselves here.
The counterpoint is that the Rapide's interior
accommodations are tight enough as it is, so on second thought, maybe a smaller
version wouldn't be such a hot idea. Especially not in that retina-searing
shade of neon green, at any rate.