Toyota goes mad with its Aygo Crazy

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What is it?

The Aygo Crazy is a one-off that's the result of some Frankenstein-like thinking at Toyota GB. Someone there thought it'd be fun to combine a little city car with a 200bhp turbocharged 1.8-litre engine. The trouble is there's no way that engine would fit under the Aygo's tiny bonnet. Naturally that didn't put the people at Toyota off, so they tore out the rear seats, stuffed the MR-2 sourced engine in the back and directed its 200 unruly horsepower to the rear wheels.

Is it any good?

front to the rear wheels and sorting out all the structural, mechanical and electrical headaches that result from such lunacy certainly isn't the work of a moment. We first heard about the weird Aygo Crazy a few years back from Toyota's PR manager. Then we dismissed his talk as nonsense. Clearly it wasn't, as not only did the Aygo Crazy run up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year, but it also took pride of place on Toyota's stand at the London Motor Show. Toyota is so confident in its madcap one-off it even lent it to us for the week.

Anything with 200bhp and so little weight is going to be fun and the Aygo Crazy doesn't disappoint. What's more impressive on first acquaintance though is just how beautifully finished this one-off is. There are a lot of racecar cues such as its bolted-in roll cage, front-mounted fuel cell and harness seatbelts. That motorsport theme is continued outside, where the rear wing that's integrated perfectly onto the Crazy's roof is from a Toyota powered single-seat racecar and the brakes poking out from behind the wheels are massive Brembo units.

Those big brakes are necessary too, as the Aygo Crazy gathers pace with alarming force. It'll reach 62mph in less than six seconds and easily break through the 110mph maximum reading on the speedometer. It's not overly compromised either; sure it's noisy, but not to the point where it's unusable. The steering is beautifully direct and nicely weighted but sharp as it is it's hopelessly compromised for manoeuvring thanks to very limited lock. That's not such a problem at Silverstone, but not ideal at Sainsburys - not that you'd have anywhere to put your shopping with a boot and rear seat full of engine.

Should I call the bank manager?

Toyota might have binned the rear seats and put an engine back there but it's such a neat installation that it really could be a production model. It will never be one though, the Aygo Crazy strictly a one-off. That is unless you can find the £100,000 or so Toyota is rumoured to have spent on the mad mid-engined micro car. It's fun, but that sort of money would buy you a lot of very impressive production cars and leave you with a pocket full of change, too.

Summary

The Toyota Aygo Crazy is the perfect riposte from a manufacturer that's often pilloried as taking itself a bit too seriously. The wild looks are justification for the Aygo's Crazy tag alone, the mid-mounted 1.8-litre turbocharged engine underlining that someone somewhere in Toyota GB is more than a little bit unhinged. We love that, and love the Aygo Crazy. It's a madcap, hugely impressive machine that not only leaves the driver grinning, but also anyone who sees it. In these times of doom and gloom that can only be a good thing.

Kyle Fortune