This Weird Drag Race Sees a K20-Swapped Mini Absolutely Walk an 820 HP Nissan R34

That being said, it's relatively hard to tell which car is the actual underdog here. While it might sound weird to hear that a Mini is at the same level of performance as an R34, we're talking about modified cars here, so anything is possible.

That's a long-winded way of saying that these cars have the exact same performance, at least on paper. The R34 does, however, have style going for it in spades. Anyone who has ever played a Need for Speed Underground game or saw the first Fast and Furious movie will immediately fall in love with the body kit equipped on this car. It has that late 90s, early 2000s vibe that brings a lot of car enthusiasts back to their childhood.

But this is enough teasing, so let's check out what's under the hood of these two contenders, starting with the Nissan. It is a GT-T version, as opposed to a full-fat GT-R, meaning it sports an RB25DET Neo engine instead of the famous RB26DETT.

But thanks to a fully built engine, a Garrett G35-900 turbo, new camshafts, and a few other goodies like titanium valve springs and a ported cylinder head, it now pushes out 820 hp (831 ps). One caveat here is that it all goes to the rear wheels only via a manual gearbox.

In the opposite corner, there is the modest Mini. Well, modest as far as size and weight are concerned because this car has a trick up its sleeve when it comes to performance. That trick comes in the form of a highly modified K20 engine. That's the power unit most enthusiasts are used to seeing in monstrously powerful Honda builds, so it should never be underestimated. As a result of this, the Mini pushes 405 hp (410 ps) to the rear wheels.

So, Nissan has twice the power of the Mini, making the British-Japanese hybrid look like the underdog here. But the Nissan weighs twice as much as the Mini, weirdly resulting in precisely the same power-to-weight ratio of 482 hp per ton. In a weird turn of events, this makes the lowly Mini the favorite to win this race, as its engine sits over the rear wheels, meaning it's likely to put the power down better.

And both the rolling race and the drag race proved just that, as the Mini took the Nissan to gapplebees in style. In the rolling race, the British car won by a bus length, leaving the Nissan driver in complete disbelief, as this is where the grip disparity between the two vehicles should have been somewhat mitigated. But it wasn't, as the Mini went from 62 to 124 mph (100 to 200 kph) in 6.25 seconds, whereas the Nissan took just over 7 seconds.

It should then come as no surprise that the drag race was a foregone conclusion. With its better grip, this is where the Mini was expected to shine, and it absolutely did. The small, old hatchback ran the quarter-mile over 1.5 seconds faster than the JDM legend, absolutely demolishing it in an automotive representation of David versus Goliath.