Goo-Net Find Of The Week: Yes, That’s A Supercharged Toyota iQ GRMN

Welcome back to Goo-Net Find of the Week, a series in which we pretend we’re not procrastinating on a Friday afternoon by idly browsing the coolest online used car platform in the world, Japan’s Goo-Net Exchange.

As far as city cars go, the Toyota iQ (known as a Scion to those of you in the US) has to be one of the most curious of the lot. 

The tiny machine had a charm to it, measuring just 3m long, 1.7m wide and 1.5m tall – yet being (relatively) spacious inside despite that. As James May proved, you can fit a St. Bernard in one, just.

One thing the iQ never was, though, was fast, even when it was redressed as an Aston Martin Cygnet. At launch, it came with a 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine producing a whopping… 67bhp. Later versions would see that swapped for a more spritely 1.3-litre, four-cylinder lump with 99bhp, but hot it was not.

Naturally, then, it was the perfect base for the minds at Gazoo Racing to turn into a hot hatch. No, seriously. Twice.

The first Toyota iQ GRMN came in 2009, amusingly as the first GRMN-branded road car. That utilised an unfettered version of the 1.3-litre engine, paired up to a six-speed manual gearbox and with a focus on improving the chassis. Stiffer suspension was added to the package, as were rear disc brakes in place of drums, while 16-inch Rays wheels and an angry-looking bodykit rounded the package out.

When all 100 of those were made, the Gazoo Racing engineers decided the GRMN needed something more. The solution? A supercharger.

And thus, in 2012, the Toyota iQ GRMN Supercharger was born. With a big whiney boi (technical term) strapped to the 1NR-FE, taking power to 120bhp. 100 of these were built, too, and we want a go in one. Desperately.

You can if you have ¥6,283,950 (about £31,100) and some change for taxes/import fees to spare for this car. That’s a lot for an iQ, admittedly, but still quite a lot less than a new GR Yaris, and arguably cooler. We bet you wouldn’t see another one on the road, ever.

This one is practically new, too. Having covered just 4200 miles in its 13 years of existence, it looks absolutely pristine in Goo-Net’s slightly grainy images. Knowing how well Japanese owners tend to look after cars, we have no doubts that’ll be the case mechanically, too – although we are a little sad its previous owner(s) haven’t enjoyed it more.

Now, if those Gazoo Racing engineers fancy doing something similar with the Aygo X, we’d love to see a spiritual successor.