You’ve likely heard of the Toyota Aygo, the popular city car introduced in the early 2000s (maybe you even had one as your first car) but we doubt you are familiar with its slightly raucous, ‘in-yer-face’ wild child sibling, the Aygo Crazy.
Nicknamed the ‘shopping supercar’, the Aygo Crazy took the Aygo’s essential qualities to the limit. Owing more to the spirit of Group B rallying rather than D1 drifting, the Aygo Crazy was built with ‘the joy of driving’ at its core, with many creature comforts from the standard Aygo removed such as electronic handling aids, power steering and ABS. It was designed to be a road legal go-kart, albeit it with a roof and doors.
Toyota obviously got carried away with throwing things away as out went the existing Aygo engine and in its place was a Toyota 1.8 VVT-i unit that powered the final generation Celica and MR2 Roadster. Not satisfied with fitting a larger engine, the 1.8 unit was tuned with a Toyota Motorsport turbo conversion kit in order to deliver 200DIN hp (197bhp) and 240Nm of torque, up from the 68 DIN bhp and 93Nm found in the standard Aygo.
The downside of fitting a larger engine meant that it could no longer be squeezed under the compact bonnet of the Aygo. The solution? Place the engine behind the driver and passenger seat to create a more emotional connection with the driver and to really drive home the ‘go-karting’ feel. The power from the rear-mounted engine was sent directly to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox taken from the MR2 Roadster.
Other mechanical changes to the Aygo Crazy included a bespoke cooling system, designed with a huge, front-mounted aluminium radiator and suspension from the MR2 Roadster, with MacPherson struts front and rear. Adjustable Tein dampers gave a sharper dynamic performance and the front and rear tracks were increased an extra inch over the standard Aygo.
All these changes meant that the Aygo Crazy could propel its 1,050kg to 62 mph in just 5.7 seconds and onto a top speed of 127mph (est). However it was never designed for outright speed and performance, the Aygo Crazy was designed to be responsive and alive to the driver’s commands…
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