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.