Posted on: Oct 28, 2012 | 12,895 reads

Aston Martin Developing V12 Cygnet?

Picture this: a pint-sized city car not much larger than a golf cart with the Aston Martin DB9's V12 engine stuffed into its guts.

As bonkers as it may sound, Autocar is reporting that Aston Martin's pint-sized city car could soon be offered with the brand's 6.0-liter V12 engine. That's the same engine that's under the hood of DB9, Rapide, V12 Vantage and the new Vanquish, not to mention a handful of older Aston models. The report alleges that the twelve-cylinder engine woukd fit in the Cygnet's engine bay "without extensive modifications," though we find that hard to believe for a car designed to accomodate a 1.3-liter inline four with just 97 horsepower.

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More than likely, the V12 would also need to be slightly detuned but considering the overall power-to-weight ratio, that seems like a very small price to pay. Autocar also says that Aston Martin would treat such a project in a way comparable to Nissan and its GT-R-powered Juke R, meaning production would be very limited for only a few wealthy clients. That's assuming that Aston is actually even considering the project, and that it would actually offer it for public consumption. Jalopnik spoke to a spokesman for the British automaker, who laughed at the idea, but crucially stopped short of denying it outright.