Aston Martin has had a few goes at relaunching the Lagonda brand since the two became bedfellows in 1948, most famously with the wedgy, William Towns-designed Aston Martin Lagonda of the late 1970s and 1980s, and most recently with the 2015 Lagonda Taraf and an aborted electric luxury sedan project axed in 2021.
But less well-known is the Lagonda Rapide built in tiny numbers between 1961 and 1964. Only 55 cars were constructed, each built to order and loosely based on the contemporary DB4 coupe, but incorporating mechanical features that would appear on the DB5 and DBS models later that same decade. They included a 4.0-liter engine in place of the 3.7-liter inline six fitted to the DB4, and a de-Dion rear axle instead of the low-tech live rear axle 007 had to make do with.
Like the DB4, the Rapide was built around a Superleggera tubular steel frame and clothed in lightweight aluminum panels, but the 114-in (2,896-mm) wheelbase (versus 98-in / 2,489 mm for the DB4) meant the back seats were no longer torture devices. And they didn’t need to be because the front end had the torture thing covered.
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To be fair, most cars would come off worst in a beauty contest when sharing the catwalk with a DB4 or DB5. And I actually like the then-fashionable sloping quad-light setup, a design later seen on the Ferrari 330 GT, Gordon-Keeble coupe, and some Mulliner Park Ward Rolls Royce Silver Clouds. There’s no doubt the Rapide has a mean look and some serious presence. But then we get to the grille, which reminds most people of the 1958 Ford Edsel, though with its central fin, a pair of headlights on either side, and another air intake below each of those, it also looks more than a little like a BMW M4, had such a thing existed 60 years ago.
Whatever your thoughts on the styling, it’s certainly an interesting and very cool car, and this one, currently being auctioned on Bonhams’ The Market website has covered only 75,006 miles if the odometer is to be believed. Originally Caribbean Blue Pearl, it’s now metallic gold and is in need of recommissioning after spending the last 15 years as a static exhibit in the Middle East. Would you take a Rapide over a Mercedes SEL 6.3?
