Would you pay £500k for the world’s only V8-engined Aston Martin Cygnet?
The Vantage-engined one-off hatch was built by Aston Martin for a very persuasive customer back in 2018
Perhaps the world’s weirdest, most wonderful one-off (your ideas for other contenders are welcome) is the unique V8 Vantage-engined Aston Martin Cygnet. And now, you have the opportunity to own it, as the hair-brained bespoke build is up for sale.
One-offs must be incredibly irritating to marque specialists, given that until they’ve all passed through your halls, you can never claim to have seen it all. Well now, Nicholas Mee & Company can, given it’s through the revered Aston specialist that the car is now offered for sale, directly from its original commissioning owner.
The ‘Super Cygnet’ as it’s known, has covered 2900 miles since it was delivered in 2018 (the car was first seen in public at that year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed). That might not sound like much but considering that many proper hypercars cover less than 2900 miles in their entire lives, the amount the little Cygnet has been driven is actually quite impressive. At the very least, it’s easier to park than a Valkyrie, not to mention a quarter of the price.
Indeed, price is always a thorny issue for one-offs, as there’s zero precedent or reference. Never has that been more the case than with the V8 Cygnet but the expected ballpark figure is, give or take, £500,000. Not a bargain if you want an inimitably capable track weapon, definitely a bargain if you want something totally unlike anything anyone else on earth owns.
Founder of Nicholas Mee & Company, Nicholas Mee, said: ‘Over the course of my career, I’ve been fortunate to handle the sale of many of Aston Martin’s most significant and outrageous creations. For visual impact, engineering intrigue, and sheer ‘wow’ factor, nothing comes close to this ‘Super Cygnet’. It’s unique, inspired, a bona fide collector car that’s guaranteed to put a smile on any enthusiast’s face.’
Aston Martin Cygnet V8 explained: what on earth is it?
As a reminder, Q created this special Aston Martin Cygnet by cramming in the 430bhp 4.7-litre naturally aspirated V8 engine, borrowed from the old Aston Martin V8 Vantage S. This was to be the ultimate showcase of the levels that Q by Aston Martin can go to for a customer with a budget as unlimited as their imagination. In the pantheon of Aston one-offs, even next to something as wild as the Aston Martin Victor, this thing defies all convention and belief. Even now, seven years on, it’s hard to believe it exists.
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Starting life as a basic Cygnet, itself a rebodied version of Toyota’s clever iQ city car that was on sale between 2008 and 2015, the team at Q started by fabricating a new bulkhead and floor in order to fit an engine with nearly five times more displacement than the original.
Shoehorned between the nose and dashboard, it takes the place of the Cygnet’s usual engine, a 1-litre three-cylinder. Connected to the engine was the same seven-speed automated manual gearbox as the Vantage, powering the rear wheels by what Aston Martin called a ‘very short torque tube’.
Power is rated at an identical 430bhp as the V8 Vantage S, but thanks to the compact body, the kerb weight is just 1375kg. That means it’s lighter than the 1600kg+ Vantage, with a better power-to-weight ratio of 313bhp/ton. Aston even performance-figured it, reaching 60mph in just 4.2sec and a (no doubt frightening) top speed of 170mph – over 60mph more than the standard Cygnet. We can’t imagine the V8 Cygnet is one for astonishing high-speed stability.
Hiding beneath carbon-composite wheelarches are the same 19-inch alloy wheels from the Vantage (shod in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s), as are the six-piston front brakes, subframes and basic suspension layouts. The compact exhaust system is bespoke to the V8 Cygnet, producing what is likely to be a very un-city car-like engine noise.
