Stealth and sly – those are two words that could sum up the mind-blowing performance of a Formula Ford race car that recently hit the famous Nürburgring track in Germany. It scored one of the fastest lap times ever recorded on the Nordschleife circuit, and how it managed that might have taken a few by surprise, seeing that it was powered by a petite three-cylinder 1.0-liter EcoBoost® engine!

The street-legal racer nabbed the honor of having the 11^th fastest lap ever, at 7 minutes, 22 seconds. For perspective, that’s faster than big-horsepower supercars like the Lamborghini Aventador and Ferrari Enzo. Ford engineers have led several months of work on a project to switch the usual 177-horsepower 1.6-liter EcoBoost to a specially tuned version 202-horsepower version of the new global 1.0-liter EcoBoost. The team also modified the car to be fully street legal for on-road use, fitting it with wheel covers, front and rear lights and indicators, aerodynamically designed wing mirrors and a horn. There’s also a six-speed manual transmission and street-legal tires.

The car’s unofficial top speed is expected to be 158.8 mph, with a 0-62 mph time of less than 4 seconds. It ran the 12.94-mile Nordschleife circuit at an average speed of 105 mph. No other three- or even four-cylinder car has posted a faster time at the legendary circuit.

You can’t buy this particular car, but engine is available in Europe and will be introduced in North America. And Ford is definitely continuing to jump into motorsports feet first – or is that rubber first? – including with a Fusion race car and the Focus Electric pace car!