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It’s one of the toughest tests imaginable for Aston Martin’s new Rapide, as we team up with the firm to put it through its paces in some of the world’s most extreme terrain.
Modern cars have to be tough. And that doesn’t mean simply withstanding the rough and tumble of Britain’s potholed roads.
Before a new model hits forecourts, manufacturers need to be sure it can cope with the most extreme conditions the world can throw at it. So, where better to put this to the test than the scorching hot, hostile climes of the Middle Eastern state of Kuwait? And what better car to follow than Aston Martin’s Rapide, as engineers put the brand new four-door through its paces?
South of Iraq and north of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait is one of the hottest places on earth, with temperatures regularly exceeding 50 degrees Celsius in the summer. The constant, scorching heat is ideal for uncovering design and engineering flaws in new cars, and we were about to find out how. Our brief visit was only scheduled to last 24 hours. But by 7am, the temperature was already approaching 40 deg C!
Even more surprising was the volume of traffic on the roads – it was as heavy as during a mid-week rush hour in the UK. And rock-bottom fuel costs in the Middle East meant most of the other vehicles were 4x4s.
We arrived at our base camp at 8am and were introduced to the Aston team conducting the assessments. After a brief outline of what the group had been doing in the desert, we were given our itinerary, followed by a history of the Rapide’s life so far.
Starting out in June 2007, the car was born and tested as a computer-aided design. Two rough versions were then built and assessed: one for thermal and cooling, and one for powertrain and dynamics.
Aston reached the first serious testing stage in autumn 2008, and with the help of five mules, began the full development phase and started looking at all aspects of the car’s set-up and performance.
This was followed by the verification stage – which is where we came in. For the Rapide, Aston built 14 verification prototypes (VPs), with each used to check more specific elements of the car, such as heating, ventilation and air-con (or HVAC), dampers and brake noise.
VPs are also driven around test tracks all over the world to make sure that, dynamically, the car is just right. One specific thing is tested on each vehicle at any one time, but each prototype is used to check around six elements in its life.
The last stage for the car is called ‘tooling tryout’. These are the very final versions, with every component fine-tuned, and could be considered as models ready for sale.
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