Beautiful Black Ice: Checking out the New Kimber Rapide

The Kimber Rapide (Black Ice) is something of a modern gentleman’s premium M1911A1 with a truckload of features that give you a semi-custom U.S-made gun right out of the box. It pairs nicely with a nice folder like a Case Gunstock. (All photos: Chris Eger)

For what Kimber bills as contributing to faster lock time, the slide has lightening cuts in addition to front and rear stepped cocking serrations with five grooves at the rear and three forward. The DLC coated stainless barrel is almost black and shows through the cuts. Rollmarks on the slide are not obnoxious, with a stylized “Kimber” on the left…

And “Rapide” on the right. The guns are made at the company’s Yonkers, New York facility.

The match-grade barrel is also stainless steel with a black DLC coating. It uses a stainless steel match grade bushing and has a 1-in-16 left-hand twist rate.

The gun takes down much like any M1911, although it should be noted that it was very tight. It uses what Kimber described as a mil-spec guide rod. The .45ACP model sports a 16-pound recoil spring from the factory while our 10mm version carried an 18.5-pound model. The 9mm gets by with a 14-pound spring, because 9mm.

The gun is a 70-series, which is sure to please those who turn up their noses at mush brought about by the 80s. Also note that the bottom of the barrel on our T&E gun is electro-penciled with the last three digits of the serial number, likely done during the fitting and final assembly process.

The Rapide comes with excellent high-profile Tru-Glo TFX Pro Day/Night sights installed. The rear is ledged and serrated and has a green fiber optic in lit conditions.

The front sight incorporates a high-vis orange ring. Both the rear and front have tritium inserts for low-light conditions.

The standard grips are hex-head secured gray/black WavZ G10 panels with aggressive texturing although most M1911 panels should fit.

The grip safety is “tactical bumped” and the Rapide sports an extended beavertail to ward away slide bite. The gun uses a flat mainspring housing

The trigger is a V-Cut aluminum that specs say is set at the factory between 4- and 5-pounds. In our testing, we found our evaluation gun broke at a crisp 4.9-pounds on average. A high cut under the trigger guard allows for higher grip access to better manage recoil.

When it comes to surface controls, the gun has extended ambidextrous thumb safeties as well as a stippled slide stop.

The frame’s front strap has a very tight-pattern Kimber Stiplex stippling that forms a honeycomb.

The extended magwell is deeply beveled with flush-fit mags disappearing into the well while the extended base pad of the included Tac-Mag provides a better fit. Either way, the front of the magwell is notched so that stuck mags can be stripped away more easily.

The stainless steel Tac-Mag magazine holds 9-rounds on the 9mm version, and 8-rounds when it comes to .45ACP and 10mm. It houses a Rocket wire spring and oversized witness holes. Notice when you are in a more muted light, the Rapide looks almost slate gray

In any light, though, Kimber’s Rapide is striking