The Rapide is made at the Aston Martin Rapide Plant, a dedicated facility at Magna Steyr's production premises in Graz, Austria, and Aston Martin say that the first cars will be delivered to buyers over the next few weeks.

The Rapide was first shown as a concept at the 2006 Detroit Motor Show, with the production version unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2009. The Rapide will be sold from 125 showrooms in 34 different countries.

The four-door performance saloon is able to accommodate four adults, and has a boot capacity of 301 litres. The Rapide is powered by a hand-built 6.0-litre V12 engine that produces 470bhp and 600Nm of torque.