Aston Martin Has Taken One Of Its Ultra-potent V8 Engines And Dropped It Into The Most Unlikely Car

Aston Martin has taken one of its ultra-potent V8 engines and dropped it into the most unlikely car.
The 4.7 litre 430bhp eight-cylinder powerplant has been stripped out of a £100,000 Vantage S and shoehorned into a diminutive Cygnet - the British manufacturer's barely-bought city runaround.
It means this 3.4 metre long two-seater can hit 62mph in 4.2 seconds and has a terrifying top speed of 170mph.
And it's not a big publicity stunt either.

Aston Martin built the one-off creation for one of its most dedicated customers, who asked them to assemble the ultimate tiny vehicle.
City car on steroids: This is the Aston Martin V8 Cygnet - a one-off built to order with a 430bhp V8 engine dropped into a vehicle that's barely longer than a bath tub
The V8 engine shoehorned under the bonnet of the Cygnet has been lifted from a previous-generation Aston Martin Vantage
Aston Martin only sold the Cygnet between 2011 and 2013 as a cheeky ploy to appease EU fleet emissions regulations.
With a range crammed with high-performance - and high polluting - supercars, it had to haul down the average CO2 emissions of all the vehicles it sold.
To do so, it rebranded a small number of frugal Toyota iQs with a few sparkly badges, a fancy interior and Aston grille, then slapped a £31,000 price tag on them and sold around 150 in the UK.
RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP But this new V8 Cygnet is an exercise in achieving the complete opposite.
Out comes the 97bhp 1.3 litre petrol engine and in its place a gurgling motor that's more than four times as powerful.
‹ Slide me › Spot the difference: To the left, a standard Aston Martin Cygnet that was on sale between 2011 and 2013.

To the right, the mental V8 Cygnet created for a dedicated customer of the brand
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The Aston Martin V8 Cygnet can hit 62mph in 4.2 seconds and has a terrifying top speed of 170mph - and it's just 3.4 metres long
Left: The Cygnet was a a cheeky ploy by Aston Martin to appease EU fleet emissions regulations.

It was a rebranded Toyota iQ with a £31,000 price tag. Right; The V8 Cygnet, we imagine, cost around three times as much
As you can tell from the images, quite a bit of modification has been made so the minuscule car can cope with all this extra performance. 
Just to fit the engine into the dinky chassis, Aston has had to custom-build a new front bulkhead and transmission tunnel.
Using a previous-generation Vantage donor car, parts including the subframes, suspension and seven-speed automatic gearbox have been surgically removed from the grand tourer and bolted on to the Cygnet.
For additional rigidity - and safety - it has a full racing roll cage, and you will definitely hear it coming with a straight-through twin exhaust system that will blast the V8 soundtrack at full volume.
The 16 inch wheels have been replaced with new lightweight 19 inch alloys, the brakes have been upgraded and a new bodykit includes outrageously wide wheel arches to give it an angrier presence.

We say angry - with its teeny dimensions, it look more like a slightly miffed Jack Russell than a snarling Rottweiler. 
The straight-through twin exhaust system will boom the gargling V8 soundtrack at full volume.

Spot the upgraded suspension components, also taken from the Aston Martin Vantage S donor car
The clocks and dials are from the Vantage, too, and hvac solutions covid there's an FIA-regulation fire extinguisher hidden in the passenger footwell
New bodywork features mega-wide wheel arches and side skirts.

It looks like an angry little Jack Russell
Inside, the comfy seats have been substituted for carbon-backed Recaro racing buckets with four-point harness belts to keep the owner securely strapped in when they decide to nip across town.
The clocks and dials have been swapped for the set that were previously in the Vantage, the driver will steer with a removable alcantara-covered wheel and there's even an FIA regulation fire extinguisher in case it turns into a small-scale barbecue.
Even with all the new additions and a bulkier motor under the bonnet, the overall weight is just 1,375kg - which isn't bad considering a standard version tipped the scales at a smidgen under a ton.
Aston won't reveal how much the customer has been charged for this bonkers bullet on wheels, but expect it to quite a premium over what was already an inflated fee for standard Cygnets.
It's incredible to think the engine in the V8 Cygnet has been lifted straight from this machine - a V8 Vantage S
The comfy seats in the standard Cygnet have been substituted for carbon-backed racing buckets with four-point harnesses.

There's a full roll cage for added safety
The standard 16 inch wheels have been whipped off and replaced with 19 inch lightweight alloys.

The brakes have also had a significant upgrade
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox money" data-version="2" id="mol-fa170eb0-85b5-11e8-a679-75cbed469a66" website car on steroids: Aston Martin slams a V8 engine into a Cygnet