The Aston Martin Cygnet could be made available with the company's 6.0-litre V12 engine.
Yes, you read that correctly. Aston Martin is considering trying to wedge the brutish V12 from the DB9 and the Vantage into Toyota iQ-based city car.
Apparently, this isn't actually as mad as it sounds. Sources claim that Aston's 12-pot will fit under the Cygnet's stubby bonnet without extensive modification, and the necessary improvements to the suspension and brakes to cope with the extra power are eminently possible.
However, it is likely that Aston will detune the V12 significantly before slotting it into the Cygnet.
As fantastic an idea as a V12-powered city car sounds, we'd have to question the sanity of Aston's engineers. The Cygnet, remember, was Aston's concession to the new EU laws which imposed an average CO2 allowance on car manufacturers. Sticking a V12 into the car which was meant to lower these emissions seems therefore to be slightly counterproductive.
And then there's the question of the power. A V12 engine is fine in a big Grand Tourer or a mid-engined Ferrari hypercar; however, putting an enormous 12-cylinder lump in a small city car is what is referred to by healthcare professionals as 'suicide'. Unless Aston's engineers pull off an amazing engineering achievement, most Cygnet V12 owners will be donating their organs to medical science long before their new car is run in.
Having said this, Nissan has pulled off the fairly impressive trick of putting a Nissan GT-R engine into its supermini-sized Juke, so maybe we're underestimating the genius of Aston Martin's vision.
There is no word yet on whether the car will actually reach production, but if there is enough customer demand you can expect to see an Aston Martin Cygnet careering into a tree near you soon.
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