World's Quickest Aston Martin Vantage Boasts 2,500 HP, 7-Second Quarter-Mile Time
All this power comes courtesy of a massive V-8. Oh, and don't forget the 118-millimeter turbo.
When we stumbled across the 9.8-second Geo Metro drag car in March, we thought we'd seen it all. We hadn't. What you see before you is probably the world's fastest—if not the world's only—Aston Martin drag car.
Reportedly the brainchild of one Mark Todd, this land-borne missile appears to be based on a 1993-2000 Aston Martin V-8 Vantage, sharing its headlights, taillights, windows, and certain body lines with the limited-run Aston. Originally featuring a 5.3-liter, twin-supercharged V-8, the Vantage was among the most powerful cars of its decade, producing over 550 horsepower and 550 pound-feet of torque.
To make the V-8 Vantage into a drag car, though, Mr. Todd needed more power, and without much aftermarket support for the Aston 5.3, he was forced to look overseas for some muscle. He reportedly found it in the form of a 568 cubic-inch (9.3-liter) Chevrolet big-block V-8, to which a colossal, 118-millimeter turbocharger was grafted. Together, the two are good for a reported 2,500 horsepower.
Todd reportedly put his full stable on display this May at Santa Pod Raceway's Doorslammers drag bracket, which offered the biggest prize pool in British drag racing history: £80,000 ($98,000). According to event results, Todd didn't win any categories, but his times shown in the video below suggest he was just getting a feel for his newborn drag Aston. His first run of the video clocks 8.180 seconds at 172 miles per hour and his second improves drastically, tumbling to 7.812 seconds at almost 180 mph.