When Honda built this tiny hybrid commuter car in 2002, the company never would have suspected that it would ever run a quarter mile in the 9s. Builder and racer Marc Roger threw a venerable J32A2 V6 engine from an Acura TL Type-S into the engine compartment, put a giant bottle of nitrous on it, and shot for the moon. After a few years of development, and a stickier set of front tires, the car has run as quick as 9.5 seconds in the quarter mile, which is a feat for a car that carried 72 horsepower and achieved 50 miles per gallon two decades ago. So if you’ve ever wanted to run nines in something as unassuming as possible, this is your car.
Honda’s J-series V6 is one of my favorite engines, because it makes decent power and it’s about as unkillable as anything else out there. This one has been mildly built to produce 315 horsepower on E85. According to the seller, the car makes 500 ponies on a single 200 shot of nitrous, and if you use “both kits” it’ll produce 600. In a car that weighs 1950 pounds, that’s a monster power to weight.
In theory the car could even be driven regularly, as it has air conditioning, electrically assisted power steering, and a full interior. The seller says it even has “full stock functionality from wipers to sound system.” From the outside, this looks like any other hypermiler cheapskate’s daily driver, down to the scuzzy bumpers and a dent behind the driver door. Anyone who looks inside would be alerted to the idea, as the passenger seat has been replaced by a pair of NOS Express pressurized bottles of go-fast sauce.
The seller is asking $15,000 or best offer, which seems like a hell of a good deal for this much fast. If you don’t want the nitrous, the seller will take it out. Apparently the car still runs a 10.7-second quarter without the laughing gas onboard, which remains mighty impressive. Check out the for sale post, with some more photos, on the seller’s Instagram. And you should buy it, you know, if you’re not a coward.