This petite Aston Martin city car packs Vantage V8 power

Nicolas Mee, a dealership in the UK that specializes in Aston Martin exotics, is looking for someone willing to drive one of the British brand’s most unique vehicles – the Cygnet.

It is a compact-sized three-door hatchback co-designed between Aston Martin and Toyota in the late 2000s based on the Toyota iQ. It is under three meters (10 feet) long and belongs to a production batch of 800 or so examples, but with an interesting twist.

This particular Cygnet was nearly completely overhauled for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2018. It ended up with all-new bodywork, improved suspension and subframe, a roll cage and Recaro bucket seats. Most importantly, it was swapped to a 4.7-liter V8 sourced from a Vantage S supercar. The mill took a while to squeeze into the tiny car, but it managed to deliver a steady 430 PS (424 hp / 316 kW) once there.

According to the original estimations, the Cygnet V8 sprints 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 4.2 seconds and maxes out north of 270 km/h (168 mph).