680 HP Nissan GT-R Gets Trampled by Lada Niva Sleeper in Wild Mid-City Drag Race

However, not all Lada Nivas were tuned equal. Let's take the one from piece of footage at the bottom of the page, for example.

As those of you who have driven a Niva know, the Russian offroader is the kind of machine that will, most likely, convince you to steer clear of attempting quarter mile shenanigans.

Well, the example we have here, which has gone through a monstrous tuning process in Ukraine, has ended up being the type that car that scares other drivers when it comes to 1,320-foot sprints.

The Lada has recently engaged in a drag race against an R35 GT-R, with the owner of the Nissan having commissioned a Stage I tech upgrade for his Godzilla. To be more precise, the Nissan packs 680 hp.

As for the Niva, this has been massaged to a whopping 600 hp - sure, the Niva had more engine options, but, on average, we could say the example we have here (helmet tip to Autoblog.md for the clip) packs around eight times the original power.

Then there's the weight advantage: while we don't know the value at which this particular Lada tips the scales, a standard Niva is almost 1,200 lbs (540 kg) lighter than a stock GT-R.

Interestingly, though, the ride height of the Lada has maintained a value that allows us to file this car under "sleeper".

To make the race even spicier, the two duked it out during the Moldavian National Drag Racing Championship, which saw participants going at it in the middle of Chisinau, the country's capital city. So yes, you'll find plenty of mid-day traffic in the background of this video.