When first announced in 2011, the Aston Martin Cygnet piqued interest globally: a tiny sub 845kg (curb weight) hatchback with Aston mechanical gubbins. Where do I sign? Instead, the world received an Aston Martin-attired Toyota IQ.

Aston Martin went bonkers when it made the Cygnet in 2011, and sold it for a few years. Why on earth did an automaker, known for V8 and V12-powered grand tourers like the Vanquish, create a city car based on a Toyota?

A one-off V8-powered Aston Martin Cygnet has come up for sale. The factory-built custom has a 4.7-liter engine from a Vantage S. In 2018 the Super Cygnet made its debut at the Goodwood FoS. In the late 2000s Aston Martin’s then-boss Uli Betz greenlighted a wacky plan to badge-engineer the Toyota IQ city car to create an Aston-branded urban runaround.

Based on a Toyota iQ, the Aston Martin Cygnet was a short-lived luxury city car that failed to sell. This one-off swaps the tiny engine for a huge V8.

Built as a one-off by the boffins at Aston’s Q skunkworks division in 2018 and maintained by Aston since then, the V8 Cygnet is essentially a shrink-wrapped Vantage S, with all of its 430bhp sent to the rear wheels through a seven-speed paddle-shift auto.

With a 4.7-liter Aston Martin V8, rear-wheel drive, and a wheelbase the size of a running sneaker, the V8 Cygnet would be a hilarious way to turn tires into dust.

Listed via Aston Martin seller Nicholas Mee in the United Kingdom, the price is marked “POA,” or price on application. The one-off Super Cygnet has 2,893 miles on it, all courtesy of the original buyer who commissioned it.

Nicholas Mee & Co are offering the one and only Aston Martin Super Cygnet, a city car with an Aston Martin V8 spliced into its compact frame

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.