When we were offered the chance to test the Aygo Crazy, i knew exactly where we were going to take it. Our test track has some great switchback corners perfect for flinging a pointy, short wheelbase car around and sure to make a great video. Frustratingly, our efforts to get the beast onto our test track on the only free day were beaten by a massive road closure that created the mother of all traffic jams due to ‘Police Activity’. We had no choice but to take it for a blast around once the jam was gone….
If you’ve never seen this car before, you’re missing out. It’s unique, created to celebrate the Aygo launch in the UK, it’s not just a concept car, it’s a living breathing thing that drives as dramatically as it looks. The engine is down at the rear, ahead of the axle and is a 2.0 litre turbo developing 200 bhp. In the front is now a beautifully alloy welded race fuel tank behind the radiators. Brembo brakes, wide Racing Dynamics alloys and a lovely crafted body give the car almost the same width as length. You might not get much shopping in it at Tescos, but you sure won’t forget where you parked it.
I admit, I got the Aygo crazy wrong the first time I drove it. I thought it was heavy, wooden and lacked feedback. I was wrong because I was driving it like a normal soft road car, which it’s not. It’s an Aygo shell, for sure, but just like any Group N rally car, it ends there.
The roll cage and four point harnesses are the first visual give-away. You may think they’re for show, but get behind the wheel, turn the key and several other clues hit home. There’s a lovely gurgle and slight whistle from the turbo on idle, a slightly fast, urgent tickover, not your average silent Toyota engine. The Sparco steering wheel is just right, but try turning it and there’s no powered steering. Go for first gear and the shift is lovely and short, the clutch a snappy sintered competition unit with a sharp bite point and judder when cold. The first junction you arrive at will bring another surprise – no servo for the Brembo brakes. Better move the driver’s seat forward a bit, I’m going to be busy….
Drive it like a competition car and it’s transformed. Punch the gears through with more urgency, use the clutch like the competition part that it is and bring a balanced, controlled aggression to your driving and it responds. Put some thigh muscle effort into the heavy unservoed brakes and they gain heat and begin to bite. Working some heat into the tyres, the grip is much better and that makes the chassis start to work, the understeer goes away in medium speed corners and you can start to expect a bit of oversteer on the way out.
And that’s where it’s a complete hoot. Carry a bit of brake into a corner, start getting on the gas early, before the apex and it gets on boost and flies out, wastegate chriping on the upshifts in true Group B Rally tradition.
Scott at Toyota GB compared it in concept to the original Renault 5 Maxi Turbo Group B car and I can see where he’s coming from. Modern engine management makes it a little less life-or-death in the boost delivery department, but the chassis is faithful to the era.
I’d have loved to have had more time with the little devil, but it’s probably best that I didn’t. I’d quickly found myself making excuses and now have a fridge full of milk….. It’s a car that challenges you to take it out and just drive for the hell of it and these days that doesn’t often happen. Once you’re dialled into the chassis, the bad thoughts start to appear. You start wishing for just another 50 bhp, just to get the back moving around a little earlier. And a limited slip diff would be great too, plus I guess if I just had a garage to keep it in and the guys at Toyota decided they needed to dispose of it … Or if only they’d built more than one and after all, making a second one would be that much easier, surely…..?
In case you haven’t guessed, I loved it and didn’t want to give it back. Perhaps some day in the future, we’ll meet again. If we do, I’ll have that track ready, cameras loaded and garage to hide it away in.
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Where i can buy one?
Sadly, you can’t. It’s the only one in existence!