Aston Martin reveals a flying car and a V8 city car, because, why not?

Wednesday, 18 July 2018

Aston Martin have released the ultimate version of its much-maligned Toyota iQ-based city car, the Cygnet, powered by a V8 engine and, just for good measure, a concept flying car.

Last week Aston Martin revealed a V8 version of its tiny Toyota iQ-based city car, the Cygnet, which seemed mad enough.

This week, the UK-based manufacturer cranked that up a notch, released any tenuous grasp it had on reality and revealed a flying car. Yes, really.

The Aston Martin Volante Vision Concept was conceived in partnership with Cranfield University, Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and Rolls-Royce (the aerospace company, not the car maker), and aims to 'bring luxury personal transportation to the sky.'

Aston Martin President and CEO Dr Andy Palmer said: 'Humans have always spent on average, one hour commuting to and from work. The distance we live from our workplace has been determined by the methods of transportation available.'

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It's an easy commute to work, but finding parking is hell.

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On the outside, the V8 Cygnet is largely unchanged. It is a tad wider though.

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* Aston Martin NZ gets a DBS-shaped coup**

See, it does fit! Aston Martin have managed to jam the Vantage's 4.7-litre V8 into the tiny Cygnet.

'The Volante Vision Concept will enable us to travel further with our hourly commute, meaning we are able to live further away from where we work. Cities will grow, and towns that are today too far away from cities to be commutable will become suburban.'

Does that sound horrifying to you? Because it is.

It's not all just functional - there are USB ports! Not much design effort has gone into that centre console though...

While the idea of a bunch of stockbrokers commuting to jobs in the city from their country estates in flying Aston Martins does throw up a few interesting possibilities regarding minor fender benders turning into fiery death plummets, it certainly wouldn't do anything for the quality of life in rural areas, with all that smug superiority and flaming debris in the air above them and all.

Still, it does look very cool though. And when Aston's designer, Marek Reichman, says something pretentious like 'We have a unique chance to create a luxury concept aircraft that will represent the ultimate fusion of art and technology. We have used forms and proportions that express the same devotion to design, engineering and beauty that shape our cars.' What he really means is 'Cool! I got to design a flying car!'

Aston Martin dropped the Cygnet after dismal sales. Could there be a market for a V8 one though?

But let's be clear; the Volante Vision will never be a real thing. Not in the near future, at least. What IS real right now, however, is that V8-powered Cygnet we mentioned at the start.

Created for a clearly mad (but in a very good way) customer by Aston's stupidly-named Q commission service (yeah, yeah, we get it - James Bond), the V8 Cygnet is really only a Cygent in looks and is powered by a 320kW/490Nm 4.7-litre naturally-aspirated V8 from the previous Vantage S.

The subframes and suspension are also from the Vantage, with a specially-fabricated front bulkhead and transmission tunnel. A roll cage was welded into the Cygnet body, forming an integral part of the chassis, while a bespoke exhaust system was also created.

The seven-speed transmission is also taken from the V8 Vantage S, while power is transferred via a miniature torque tube to the 9.5-inch wide rear wheels.

Weighing just 1375kg when full of fluids, Aston Martin say the V8 Cygnet is capable of accelerating faster than the V8 Vantage S with 0-60mph (0-96km/h) taking just 4.2 seconds. With a top speed of 275km/h it is more than 90km/h faster than the regular Cygnet. Funny that.

With that kind of speed, some serious stoppers are necessary, which, of course, the Cygnet has - 380mm discs clamped by six-piston monoblock calipers at the front and 330mm discs gripped by four-piston mono block calipers at the rear.

On the inside the V8 Cygnet gets a fully FIA compliant fire extinguisher system, some fixed back Recaro bucket seats with four-point harnesses, a removable alcantara covered steering wheel and a bespoke carbon dash with the a Vantage instrument cluster.

But it's not all pure racing functionality, there are also little touches of luxury inside as well, with leather pull straps on the carbon door cards and two USB ports alongside the bespoke controls for the air conditioning.

Aston says the one-off V8 Cygnet is 'a timely reminder of what a ground-breaking car the original was, bringing luxury to the city car segment.'

In reality it was a flop of massive proportions and a vast misjudgement of the city car segment. Conceived as Aston's doorway into a potentially lucrative luxury city car market, the Cygnet was also an easy way to get the company's corporate average emissions down and avoid some hefty fines.

It was based on the Toyota iQ and part of its downfall was that this was far too obvious, particularly considering it cost around four times the price of the Japanese donor car.

Aston killed off the Cygnet less than two years after it launched, with less than 150 being sold. However, there is a slightly optimistic upside to this failure - the tiny numbers have meant the Cygnet is a relatively rare vehicle and prices are actually starting to rise on second hand examples, although Aston's bold claim that the Cygnet 'looks set to become a future classic' might be a bit too optimistic.

That V8 one though? Yeah, that's a classic already.