Aston Martin stuffed a V8 engine into its cute little Cygnet city car as a one-off commission project for a person who has a better imagination and bigger wallet than any of us, and it’s like a wasp in car form—miniature in size but terrifying enough to send full-grown adults running in the opposite direction.
Except, of course, this thing buzzes a whole lot louder than a wasp.
Here’s the car running up a famous British driveway at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, roaring around with a 4.7-liter naturally aspirated V8 from the old Vantage S that Aston rates at 430 horsepower and 361 lb-ft of torque. Watching 43 seconds of it is enough to make you question every decision you’ve made in your life, including your taste in cars, because this is really the only type of car we as a human population could ever need:
Aston had to do a lot to make the V8 commission work in its rebadged Toyota iQ, like welding in a roll cage, fabricating a new transmission tunnel and putting the Cygnet’s body onto the subframe and suspension of the previous Vantage S. Aston also put the old Vantage S’ seven-speed automatic transmission, pedal box and braking system into the car and turned the entire rear cargo area into a gas tank, because anybody sending a Cygnet from 0 to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds is going to need the extra space for fuel.
This Cygnet is completely unnatural, unexpected, ridiculous and incredible at the same time. And sure, you can run as far away from the V8-powered Cygnet as your heart desires, with fear pumping through your veins as you imagine it beating your own pride and joy of a “fearsome” car.
But unlike a wasp, this Cygnet will actually catch you.
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