The antithesis - city car with V8 engine
03/03/2025
No, this is not yet a classic car or a youngtimer, but it is a variant of the " classic pearl of the future" that we wrote about almost exactly nine years ago.
The Aston Martin Cygnet was a variant of the Toyota IQ built from 2009 to 2013, and an expensive one at that. But under the slightly adapted Aston Martin sports car livery of the time, the Cygnet remained close to the Toyota (4 cylinders, 1.33 liter displacement, 97 hp), after all, it was also about reducing fleet consumption.
However, the people at Aston Martin, particularly in the Q Division, proved a few years later that there could have been even more to the platform. They combined the Cygnet with the drivetrain of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage S! It must not have been easy to squeeze the somewhat larger V8 under the hood of the Cygnet, but they succeeded. The 430 hp were directed to the rear wheels via a rear-mounted seven-speed sports shift gearbox with paddles on the steering wheel. The V8 city car weighed 1375 kg, could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in around 4.2 seconds and was measured at over 250 km/h.
Of course, not too much remained original, many body parts had to be remade and sweeping fender extensions were fitted for the wide wheels. The interior was also redesigned and many Aston parts found their way into the cockpit.
The car was then shown for the first time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2018 and the privately financed riot box was actually given a road license.
The first and current owner hasn't driven the car very much, with the speedometer showing 2893 miles today. But these miles must have been a lot of fun, one can assume.
Now, however, the compact V8 is for sale at Nicholas Mee for the first time since 2018 . The (presumably not very easy to maintain) one-off is unlikely to be cheap, but you can't treat yourself to anything else ...
P.S. If you would like to see and hear how the car drives and sounds, you can watch this instructive video:
