The production-ready version of the Aston Martin Rapide was unveiled today, at the first day of the Frankfurt Auto Expo. The Rapide is the first, four-door sedan made by the Company in its rich 95 years history. The car will be on sale in 2010 and is all set to command an estimated price tag of 200,000 dollars. Although most of the details about the car were already known, the final production version has a few subtle changes from the display car shown earlier.

In the flesh, the car looks stunning. Aston Martin has stretched the coupe based design to a super saloon with a high measure of success. The extra length gained by car is wonderfully disguised by the coupe-like roof line. As predicted, the Rapide will use a tweaked version of the 6.0 liter V-12 engine under the hood of the Aston Martin DB9. The engine gets mated to a six-speed, automatic transmission from ZF that uses paddle shifter. The engine produces 470 horsepower and 442 pound feet of torque. These staggering figures make sure that the car can accelerate from zero to sixty mph in a matter of 5.3 seconds. The top speed, at 188 mph is no less sensational than the acceleration figures.

The interior looks similar to the DB9, with a similar dash layout and wooden, central console. The interior is finished in beige color and offers four individual seats for the four passengers. The rear seats are individual bucket seats that are designed to hug to the passengers giving supports with cornering. The transmission tunnel intrudes massively into the cabin. There many luxury features in the car to pamper the passengers like seat mounted LCD panels, rear air-conditioning, cup solders and bottle holders. There is generous space for four adults and the boot can swallow 26.5 cubic inches of luggage.

The Rapide is genuinely handsome car with a rich, European, pedigree and rarity. It will have to face competition from super limos like the Maserati Quattroporte, Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, Bentley Flying Spur, Porsche Panamera along with the upcoming Audi A7 and Lamborghini Estoque. Interestingly, the last four candidates in the list are from companies that are under the Volkswagen group’s management. The Panamera will be the cars arch rival and by the look of it, the Rapide is well armed to give it a healthy competition.