What if we told you there was a Toyota-based city car with Aston Martin flourishes and a V-8 engine producing more than 400 horsepower, and you could buy this vehicle today? Sounds crazy, but there’s a new listing from the Nicholas and Mee company in England for the iconic one-off Aston Martin “Super Cygnet” V-8, one of the wildest production cars ever built.
A few years ago, Aston Martin made a deal to produce its own version of the plucky and tiny Toyota/Scion iQ city car to help balance out its lineup of otherwise high-horsepower and inefficient sports and super cars and drag down its average fleet carbon emissions. Nowadays you’d just build an EV, but back then, it was city cars with tiny engines. However, the original Cygnet kept the Toyota powertrain, which was obviously a disappointment to most potential Aston owners. One special customer requested a V-8 model, and the crazy British brand actually went and built just one for him. Now it’s finally for sale for someone else to enjoy.
Aston Martin’s so-called Q modification division went to work on the Cygnet, which was originally introduced in 2009 with a 97-hp 1.33-liter four-cylinder gas engine, with the entire car weighing in at just a hair over 3,000 pounds wet. Ten months later, the “Super Cygnet” would leave the shop with a 4.7-liter V-8 sourced from the Vantage S sports car making 430 hp sent through a seven-speed paddle-shift gearbox to the rear wheels. The crazy creation has a claimed top speed of 170 mph and gets from 0-60 mph in 4.2 seconds, though Aston’s own driver only ever got it up to 155 mph.
Much of the car is bespoke, with a unique Buckinghamshire Green paint job, carbon wheel arch extensions, and five-spoke wheels with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber. Inside there’s a carbon fiber and black alcantara treatment wedged around a full installed roll cage for safety (obviously a concern here), and the Vantage’s instrument panel.
The car so far has been an event darling since 2018, and is welcome at probably any concours or event celebrating unique motors. It made its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, even. Now, it can be yours. Pricing is a “if you have to ask” notion, but it’s been well maintained by Aston itself, professionally stored for most of its life, and only has 2,900 miles on the clock. Let us know if you buy it… we’ve already driven it before, but we would love to try to help someone hit that claimed 170 mph top speed some day, track and personal sanity permitting.