Fascination of Owning Aston Martin Rapide

Cars produced by british producer Aston Martin have always been fascinating and breath taking sports vehicles. Owning one of these cars is a fantastic experience. But now Aston Martin is going to give us something very special and different. The new concept car Aston Martin Rapide. This vehicle is a pure sports car, but with four door. It also comes with high performance and remarkable poise and grace.

This beautiful sports car should be produced from 2010, but this date is not for sure yet. The car is built based on unique vertcal / horizontal design which enables to combine power, soul and beauty with large space and practicality for every day use of the vehicle. Many new stylistic, innovations and flexible manufacturing features were used to create the automobile. New features were also used in the interior as well as exterior.

Aston Martin comes to the new century with almost unlimited potential. The company belongs to the group of strongest brands in the automotive industry also as in the history and now has all it needs to produce best segment cars (products, facilities, technology, distribution networks). The company is able to move fast from the concept and prototypes stages to the final production stage of its models. As mentioned before, the all brand new concept car Aston Martin rapide should come to the final production. It will be produced in limited numbers only, so owning one of these excellent sports cars will be a very exciting experience as well as a very good investment.

By Marian Hlinka.

Visit the Blog about aston martin baltimore

Car Designations Explained - The European Influence

There's nothing like using the motherland's terminology to make your car sound like it's got more class. Of course, you'll never drive an Aston Martin Black Pudding, but harking back to the gentlemanly days can give a marque some extra kudos.

Shooting-brake (or shooting-break, depending on which country you're in)

In the 1800s and through to the early 1900s a brake was a type of open-topped horse-drawn carriage of any size designed for hunting. It was designed to carry the driver and a gamekeeper at the front and several sportsmen with guns in the back. Dogs, guns and game were carried alongside in racks. While this sounds like it could have morphed into a mafia-style limo, it's more commonly used to describe a station wagon, or estate-type of car.

Aston Martin are particularly fond of the term (DB5, DB6, Virage, Vantage, Lagonda and DBS all had the term applied), and it's been resurrected recently by Audi for a couple of concept cars. Ferrari, Porsche, Volvo, Bentley and even Lamborghini have produced concepts or production cars. Although, anyone trying to shoot a pheasant while hanging out of the side of a Lamborghini would need heat-guided missiles.

Many of the concepts started to look like stylistic hearses. www.shooting-brake.com has a number of images.

Drophead coupe (or drophead coupé)

E-Type Jaguar 187 8Basically, it's a convertible (or cabriolet in British English). The name applies to both cars with a retractable hardtop roof, or a soft folding top. The concept behind a 'convertible' was that you could 'convert' your open-topped car into one that had a roof. British manufacturers tend to use the designation with Aston Martin (DB2/4 Drophead Coupe), Bentley (Arnage Drophead Coupe) and Daimler Double-Six 50 Sport Corsica Drophead Coupe). Rolls-Royce released its 2008 Phantom Drophead Coupe at the January 2007 Detroit North American International Auto Show.

Fixed head coupe

It's the opposite of a drophead coupe. A coupe with a fixed roof, the term was mainly used by British manufacturers such as Jaguar (e.g. XK150, E-Type) well as Rolls-Royce (e.g. Corniche), Aston Martin (e.g. DB3S), TVR (e.g. Tasmin 280i), and Bentley (e.g. Mark VI Park Ward).

GT

CC News Maserati Gran Turismo 200707 00Standing for Grand Tourer (or Gran Turismo in Italian), GT means it's a high performance car with the comforts required for long distance driving. They're usually larger and heavier than sports cars and mostly have their engine at the front. While outright power and acceleration of GT cars can match some sports cars, softer suspension and a heavier body often means on the track they're left in the dust. Examples include pretty much the whole Aston Martin range, Ferrari 599 GTB, Jaguar XJS, Maserati GranTurismo, and the Mercedes SLR McLaren. The Porsche Carrera GT is not really a GT car - more of a supercar or hypercar.

By Darren Cottingham.