Aston Martin celebrates its 100th Year at Geneva with Rapide S

Aston Martin is celebrating a century of automotive achievement at the 83rd Geneva International Motor Show. The luxury British sports car maker – which is marking its centenary in 2013 – takes centre stage in Switzerland with cars both from its illustrious past and its exciting future. Pride of place is reserved for the latest luxurious addition to the now fully-replaced or refreshed sports car range – the forthcoming Rapide S.

The luxury four-door GT has been sympathetically redesigned and painstakingly re-engineered to reassert its position as the world's most beautiful, and beautifully balanced, four-seat sports car. Extensive design and engineering improvements make the new Rapide S even more desirable and refined. It replaces the outgoing Rapide in markets worldwide.

The Rapide S now boasts an even more assertive ‘face' created by virtue of the striking new full grille. The new front end design is matched at the back by a new rear deck profile which consists of a more pronounced boot lid ‘flip'. The improved aerodynamic and aesthetic upgrades both reinforce the sporting nature of new Rapide S.

Changes under the car's sinuous skin are comprehensive, with the new AM11 naturally-aspirated 6.0-litre V12 powerplant delivering unprecedented power and improved in-gear acceleration. Output jumps significantly versus the previous V12: power is up by 17%, or 79bhp, from 470bhp at 6,000 rpm to an unprecedented 550bhp at 6,750 rpm.

Peak torque increases, too, up from 600 Nm to 620 Nm at 5,500 rpm. Meanwhile an even more marked improvement in torque occurs lower down the rev range, as pulling power rises by more than 40 Nm between idle and 4,000 rpm with an additional 50 Nm available at 2,500 rpm.

New Rapide S shaves 0.3 seconds off its 0-100km/hr time, which drops from the 5.2 seconds to just 4.9 seconds. Fully CNC machined combustion chambers; lighter, hollow, cam shafts; dual variable camshaft timing; knock sensing – these important advances all help reinforce the V12 engine's position as a mainstay of the Aston Martin range.