Future: Aston Rapide is go

Boss Bez lets slip confirmation

Aston martin CEO Ulrich Bez says the Rapide four-door Detroit show concept is going to reach production. It was an unplanned announcement, made in his native German to a German interviewer-Bez's P.R. minders didn't realize he'd said it until a few days later.

Using a stretched-aluminum DB9 platform and the same 500-plus-horsepower-plus V-12, the Rapide will continue Bez's personal mission to upset his ex-employer, Porsche, where he was chief engineer. The Rapide will go head to head with the Porsche Panamera. Intro date is likely to be 2008, because first the tiny company has to get James Bond's DBS and the V8 Vantage convertible into production.

The DBS and Rapide will cost $200,000 to $250,000 and will probably edge the Vanquish out of the model range, though the Vanquish gets a minor interior face-lift first, incorporating the DB9's center console.