Comparison: 2010 Aston Martin Rapide vs 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost vs 2010 Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed
We grab the Grey Poupon and head to Palm Springs with three ultra British luxury sedans.
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00:00 As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, the rich are different from you and me.
00:12 Their cars are different too.
00:14 Here we have three limousines built for folks whose pool guy drives a Mercedes-Benz.
00:20 Each wears an aristocratic British badge.
00:23 Each has a V12 engine with six litres or more under the hood.
00:28 Each is hand-built in limited numbers and each is reassuringly expensive.
00:33 Yet each one of these three is built for a very different kind of rich person.
00:39 Just like you guys.
00:40 Well, I'll tell you, Angus, I like the Aston, but for the average person that could be a
00:45 Jag, could be a Peugeot.
00:48 The Bentley looks like an over-inflated Crowne Beck.
00:52 This one though, everybody knows who she is.
00:55 The Rolls has mega presence.
00:57 If you're going to spend a couple hundred grand on a car, that's what you want.
01:01 Plus, it's got twin-turbo V12 making what, 563 horsepower?
01:07 It's a leather-lined rocket ship.
01:11 It's the obvious choice if you're going to spend this kind of bucks.
01:13 I don't know about obvious.
01:15 Maybe if you want to be chauffeured around, but if it's my dough, I'm driving the Bentley
01:19 because it's the best balance.
01:21 It's the one you can really drive but also carry a lot of people in.
01:24 The Aston's cool, but man, those rear seats, I don't know, you can't put too many ladies
01:28 back there.
01:29 The Bentley, it's the one that all the rap guys, all the celebrities, that's the one
01:32 they aspire to.
01:33 Shoot, I mean, it's in the latest Jay-Z song.
01:36 Jay-Z, I'd rather listen to Jay Bond, thanks very much.
01:40 When you're talking about someone who knows cars, he's the man.
01:43 This is the Aston Martin that 007 would use to take his mother-in-law to church on Sundays.
01:49 On Sunday afternoon, he'd be driving up his favorite canyon road.
01:52 This is a driver's car.
01:53 The extra seats there are for when you need to take people around.
01:56 It gives it that little bit of practicality.
01:58 That's the one for me.
02:00 So I think we know which one we're each driving then.
02:02 Let's go.
02:03 All right.
02:03 The
02:24 Ghost is the first small Rolls Royce launched since the 1949 Silver Dawn, though small is
02:31 a relative term.
02:33 At 212.6 inches, it's still 4.3 inches longer overall than the not insubstantial Bentley
02:40 CFS Speed, and it boasts a 9.1 inch longer wheelbase.
02:45 The Ghost is an imperiously elegant car, restrained, tasteful, but with a powerful presence on
02:51 the road.
02:52 The front axle is pushed forward and the cabin set back, delivering perfect proportions,
02:57 and it has the high nose, low tail stance characteristic of classic British luxury cars.
03:04 In terms of engines, the Ghost is the best of the bunch.
03:08 Its 563 horsepower, 6.6 liter direct injection twin turbo V12 drives the rear wheels through
03:16 the only eight-speed automatic in this trio.
03:20 With 575 pound feet of torque on tap at just 1500 RPM and better gearing, the BMW developed
03:28 engine delivers satiny Saturn V thrust the moment you caress the gas pedal.
03:33 On its home turf in Sussex, England, the Ghost went down the road like silk underwear down
03:39 a supermodel's leg.
03:40 But here in the colonies, on roads littered with lateral bumps, freeway section joints,
03:46 and spoon drains, the suspension constantly transmits a rubbery rumba of shudders back
03:51 through the body structure that even the passengers will notice.
03:55 And while that truly epic powertrain provides an effortless surge from the lights, you can
04:00 find yourself arriving at corners on an empty winding two-lane way faster than you bargained
04:05 for.
04:06 Fortunately, the brakes are simply outstanding, because getting the Ghost to change direction
04:11 in a hurry, well, it's a bit like making an elephant tap dance.
04:16 This thing might be the small Rolls-Royce, but it feels strangely less wieldy than the
04:20 bigger Phantom.
04:21 Part of the problem, we suspect, could be the Goodyear EfficientGrip run-flat tyres,
04:27 which feel stiff in the sidewalls, but don't seem to offer a surfeit of grip.
04:33 At 197.6 inches long and with a 117.7 inch wheelbase, the Aston is dwarfed by the Ghost,
04:41 but it's still bigger than a Cadillac STS.
04:43 The leath, sensuous, impossibly gorgeous repeat is a near-perfect replica of the concept that
04:49 all but stole the 2006 Detroit show.
04:53 And the way the Aston DB9 Coupe's curves have been artfully tugged and teased over a longer
04:58 wheelbase and around four doors is truly breathtaking.
05:02 Car-savvy Angelinos nearly drove off the road while vying for a closer look every time we
05:07 hit the freeway.
05:09 The sports car of this bunch is left gasping by the Rolls and the Bentley.
05:13 Producing 470 horses at 6,000 rpm, the Aston Martin Rapide's naturally aspirated 6.0-litre
05:20 V12 is hardly a weakling, but it feels decidedly undernourished in this company, delivering
05:26 a 0-60mph time of 4.7 seconds and a 13.2-second quarter mile.
05:34 The Aston engine displays the typical peakiness of a V12, with its maximum 443 pound-feet
05:40 of torque not available until a dizzy 5,000 rpm.
05:45 A six-speed automatic transmission that has an annoying hole between second and third
05:49 gears and is not as crisply calibrated as the one in the Bentley doesn't help.
05:54 The Rapide feels lethargic unless you keep the tranny in sports mode around town or fan
05:59 the paddle shifters to maintain momentum along a winding canyon road.
06:03 Apart from pronounced tyre roar at highway speeds, the Aston's chassis strikes an unexpectedly
06:09 competent balance between sports car and luxury sedan.
06:13 Leave the shocks set in normal mode and the Rapide won't beat you up on acne-ed city streets.
06:18 Switch to sport mode and the Rapide amps up the dialogue between driver and road surface.
06:23 In the twisties, the Rapide feels like a DB9 on Novocaine.
06:27 Though the steering is still tactile and linear, the longer wheelbase has clearly damped its
06:31 reflexes.
06:34 Next to the Ghost and the Rapide, the CFS Speed looks a little frumpy.
06:39 It's partly familiarity, as the Continental Flying Spur has been on the road almost five
06:43 years and parts of LA are awash with the things.
06:48 But equally, there's no disguising the VW Group all-wheel-drive architecture upon which
06:52 it's built.
06:54 That's not to say we don't like it, however.
06:56 Any company that names its performance models "Speed" is just fine by us, especially when
07:00 it's not marketing hype.
07:02 With its 6-liter twin-turbo W12 engine tuned to deliver 48 more horses and 74 pound-feet
07:08 more torque than the regular Continental Flying Spur, the CFS Speed is a leather-lined, ground-based
07:13 intercontinental ballistic missile that will hit a genuine 200 miles per hour on the Autobahn
07:19 without raising a sweat.
07:21 It also gets massive brakes, retuned suspension, and Pirelli P-Zero tires on 20-inch rims.
07:27 Like their counterparts at Porsche, the Bentley chassis engineers seem determined to build
07:31 a car that defies the laws of physics.
07:34 Setting the suspension in Comfort or Normal modes, Caramel coats the road impacts from
07:38 the sports-oriented tires without diluting the precision of their responses.
07:43 Sport mode makes the ride noticeably busier and generates some noise through the steering
07:47 during hard cornering, but keeps the body nicely tied down.
07:51 The Bentley tracks like a bullet train on the freeway, and its behavior on a winding
07:55 two-lane road is almost beyond rational explanation.
07:59 You simply cannot believe a car this big, this heavy, can be this good to drive.
08:04 How good?
08:05 Let's just say you have to drive the wheels off the Aston to stay with the big Bentley.
08:09 True, the CFS works its front tires very hard, and the all-wheel drive layout robs the steering
08:14 of some clarity.
08:15 But after an exhilaratingly fast run along a canyon road, you get out of the CFS Speed
08:19 shaking your head and grinning like a loon at the sheer implausibility of what you've
08:23 just done.
08:26 Well, there's still a lot I love about this old Rolls.
08:29 It's huge inside, very comfortable, you really do kind of waft along, and the powertrain
08:35 is just unbelievable.
08:36 I mean, with all that torque and horsepower, and the eight-speed transmission is absolutely
08:40 seamless.
08:41 And the thing is so quiet, I mean, when I was gunning it up the hill, I could hear myself
08:45 sweating.
08:46 It's just brilliant that way.
08:47 But aside from that, there's some things that really disappoint it.
08:50 The ride isn't that great, there's a fair amount of impact harshness, and above all,
08:54 the chassis, the structure just isn't that stout.
08:57 There's a fair amount of quiver, and I really didn't expect that in a $300,000 Rolls.
09:01 So some things I still love about the old Roll, but overall, I don't think she's the
09:05 winner.
09:06 Well, I still love the way it looks, and I like the way it drives.
09:09 I mean, on these mountains roads, this really does feel like a sports car.
09:13 But I've got to say, okay, it's a bit of a one-trick pony.
09:16 It really is a sports car with four doors.
09:18 It's not really a luxury limousine.
09:21 A lot of room in the back, so much fun back there.
09:24 Fun to drive, but it's not the all-rounder.
09:28 So I said this one is the driver, the one I'd choose, but man, I don't think I even
09:32 knew how much it actually is a fantastic drive out here.
09:37 That B stands for stealth bomber, because compared to these other two, it doesn't look
09:41 as flashy, but up on these canyon roads, man, it is insane.
09:45 It is so quiet, so smooth, but very, very fast.
09:48 Perhaps faster than that Aston, I think.
09:50 It's got everything you need.
09:51 It's got adjustable suspension.
09:52 It's got paddle shifters, and it's actually got a lot of room.
09:55 I mean, way more room than that Aston, and the ride is so much better than the Rolls.
10:00 It's phenomenal.
10:01 It really is the best mix of both worlds in terms of being a great drive and being a great
10:07 people carrier.
10:08 This is the best one out there.
10:15 (upbeat music)