Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Bonkers Aston Martin Cygnet V8 That Was For Sale, Briefly
A completely over-the-top V8-powered compact city car is something right up our alley!
What would you expect from a proper city car? Probably the answer to that question is something practical, reliable, agile, compact on the outside and spacious on the inside, cheap to run and so. Surely, you wouldn’t think “V8!!”, now would you? Well, the madmen of Aston Martin’s Q-division did think “V8!!” back in 2018 and created the rather wild Aston Martin Cygnet V8! This super-compact was based on a regular Cygnet, which was in turn based on a Toyota iQ. Although only one Cygnet V8 was built, you had the chance to snag it up over at Aston Martin specialist Nicholas Mee & Co. Very briefly though, as it was for about a week and a half or so! Regardless, it’s worth checking out simply for its sheer madness!
A little over a decade ago, the ever-tightening regulations on vehicle emissions and pollution challenged quite a few low-volume car manufacturers. While some companies like Ferrari and Lamborghini could fall back on the combined average emissions of all produced vehicles of the mutlti-brand group they are part of, others could not. Others like Aston Martin, who at the time didn’t have the fortune to factor in low-emission vehicles from sister-brands and such, had to find another way to comply with these restrictions. And what Aston Martin thought of to offset its range of high-powered V8 and V12 sports and supercars was something rather surprising (and admittedly a touch daft) named the Cygnet!
Back in 2012, emissions regulations forced many carmakers to jump through all sorts of hoops, and then-Aston Martin chairman Ulrich Bez announced that the Cygnet would be the answer to the conundrum the fabled British manufacturer was facing. It was based on the tiny Toyota iQ, which was about 3 meters long, 1.70 meters wide and stood 1.50 meters tall. This meant the iQ had a rather small footprint as it was not much bigger than the original Mini! In Japan, it also met the fabled Kei Car requirements. It was put on the road in Japan and Europe in 2008, with North America following in 2012 (as the Scion iQ). Production ceased in 2016, and in that short window, about 100,000 were sold as a Toyota and a further 15,700 as a Scion.
But what about the Cygnet? Well, Ulrich Bez announced plans to rebadge and mold the tiny iQ into the Cygnet, complete with Aston Martin signature grill design, and sell up to 4,000 of them per year. It was introduced in 2011, but sales figures were so bad that the car was taken off the market in 2014, after less than 600 of them were delivered to clients. So, it wasn’t the saving grace Aston Martin needed, but let’s not dwell on the how’s and why’s for too long.
On to the Cygnet V8, one of the wildest compact cars I have ever come across! The project is built by Aston Martin’s Q-branch, which is basically their skunkworks department, where all sorts of creative and bespoke things are cooked up. And yes, it’s very likely the Q-designation comes from the James Bond franchise, with the titular spy regularly wheeling an Aston Martin across the big screen! It was actually commissioned by a client who wanted to add just a bit more power to the Cygnet. And I do mean that sarcastically, as the iQ and Cygnet shared a drivetrain that delivered a measely 98bhp, less than a quarter of the power it now makes! I’m sure the task at hand left a few AM engineers scratching their heads, but they found a way to deliver what the client wanted regardless.
How? By somehow shoe-horning a 430bhp 4.7 litre V8 engine and 7-speed paddle-shift gearbox from a Vantage V8 S into the little Cygnet! And if you look at the images, the engine seems to take up half the car as it’s an extremely tight fit! To accommodate this monstrous (for the small Cygnet/iQ platform, at least) new engine, the chassis was extensively modified and strengthened. Oh, and it received some much-needed stopping power, with a set of brakes also donated by a V8 Vantage S.
The right-hand drive base car also received a full roll cage for extra strength and rigidity. Further modifications include Recaro racing seats and a four-point harness, a special fuel tank in the rear, carbon fibre dashboard and interior panels, a removable Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel and new controls and instruments.
On the outside, it received additional air intakes, a set of very wide wheel arches, a reworked rear section, and a bespoke exhaust system. The result of all this nipping and tucking is a car that weighs just 1,375 kg (including liquids) and has a power-to-weight ratio of 313bhp per tonne! To put that into perspective, a 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera S only achieves a 262bhp per tonne ratio. It even comes quite close to the 354bhp per tonne ratio of the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3! Did I say this car was mad already? The famous nought to 100kmh takes the super-Cygnet just 4.2 seconds, and it has a quoted top speed of almost 275 kph. Yikes!
The car made its debut at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed, and it has only clocked 2,893 miles or 4,655 kilometers. The Buckinghamshire Green Cygnet V8 was put up for sale by the original owner through Nicholas Mee & Co, a renowned Aston Martin specialist in Hatfield, UK. But it wasn’t long until someone snatched it up, as Nicholas Mee & Co confirmed it has now been sold for an undisclosed sum.
For more information, please visit NicholasMee.co.uk.
Editorial Note: The images portrayed and information sourced for this article are provided by and used with permission of Nicholas Mee & Co unless stated otherwise.
