Someone somewhere in the world can claim to have the fastest Mark 5 VW Golf GTi running a stock chassis, modified aero, standard engine block, nitrous, and a DSG gearbox. The fastest speed in a 440-yard (402-m) NHRA race in the Pro Stock car class is 215.55 mph (346.89 km/h), by Erica Enders-Stevens (USA) on at the NHRA Summernationals, held at the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, USA. After all, there are as many records to claim as there are types of car competing. Drag racing is hyper-competitive, clearly. Just last week, Gidi Chambi ran a 7.14 second pass in his AMS Performance-built, stock-chassis Nissan GT-R, a record for the type, barely a week after Ekanoo Racing had set the marker at 7.16 seconds. In which it beat a V8-engined Pontiac Firebird and a Nissan 240SX for good measure.

And it seems like the crowd knew exactly what was stake, letting out an enormous cheer after each of the Civic’s runs. The World Cup Finals at Maryland International Raceway provided the venue for the record-breaking run. And the car has around 350,000 miles (563,000 km) under its belt.

Incredibly, that power goes to the ground through an H-pattern gearbox. That’s five times the output of the most powerful 2.0-liter turbo production car. Somehow - witchcraft, probably - the crew has managed to squeeze 1,850 horsepower (1,380 kilowatts) out of the motor at the crankshaft. The car was put together by Tacoma, Washington-based SpeedFactory Racing with a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine breathing through a turbo the size of a dog.

Fastest quarter mile stock car