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Aston Martin’s One-Off V-8 Pocket Rocket Is for Sale
It was called the Cygnet, but arguably Cynic would have been a better name for the rebadged and retrimmed Toyota iQ marketed under the Aston Martin Banner to cut the company’s corporate average fuel consumption figures.
Aston had hoped that thousands of Cygnets would be sold as city cars to existing and aspiring Aston owners, but the reality was rather different. From 2011-2014 just 593 examples were made, each powered by the same 100-hp 1.3-liter engine as the Toyota donor, with a manual or optional CVT transmission. It struggled to 60 mph in 11.5 seconds, making it by far the slowest Aston Martin of the 21st Century.
Just one, however, was truly worthy of the Aston Martin name—the Super Cygnet built by the company’s Q division and powered by a 4.7-liter V-8 from the Vantage S. The Q boffins grafted the front and rear subframes, including suspension, from the Vantage to the original iQ. Widened carbon fiber wheelarches were tacked on to house lightweight forged five-spoke silver diamond-turned wheels, fitted with high-performance Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires.
Inside, they beefed it up with a roll cage, installed a carbon fiber dashboard and Vantage instruments, plus Recaro race seats.
The V-8 sent 436 horsepower to the rear wheels through a seven-speed Sport Shift gearbox and the Super Cygnet was clocked at a top speed of 170 mph, reaching 60 mph from rest in just 4.2 seconds.
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The car made its public debut at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed and is now for sale for the very first time at U.K. specialist Nicholas Mee, having covered a mere 2900 miles.
“The V8 Super Cygnet represents Aston Martin engineering at its most creative and audacious,” says Mee. “It’s a brilliant demonstration of what happens when you combine the heart of a V8 Vantage S with the compact dimensions of the Cygnet city car. The result is simply extraordinary—a 430bhp pocket rocket that delivers supercar thrills in a package you could park in the tightest city space. It’s unique, inspired, a bona fide collector car that’s guaranteed to put a smile on any enthusiast’s face.”
The asking price for the “world’s smallest supercar” is around $600,000.
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What a crazy little car. I’m surprised it is available to purchase, even at a crazy price.
It’s amazing that they could cram that V8 in.
Amazing indeed that they could cram a V-8 in such a small package but it begs the question. Why? I am reminded of watching a show on superbikes and one of the bikes had a turbine engine out of a bell helicopter and the narrator an accomplished bike racer described the gas turbine bike as ” an exercise in technological masturbation”.