A garage owner’s Vauxhall Victor has just topped 260mph to become the world’s fastest street-legal car.
The 47-year-old car bears little resemblance to its original state and now dons a Chevrolet 8.8 litre V8, twin-turbo engine which develops 4000bhp.
The record attempt – staged in Bahrain and completed in less than six seconds – cost £26,000 to mount with the backing of Gloucester-based R-Tech Welding Equipment Ltd.
Owner, Andy Frost, who runs Penn Autos in Wolverhampton, previously held the record in 2012 and 2014 before losing it to an American rival by just 0.18 seconds.
He said: “In our scene it’s quite a big deal and there is such a large group of people behind it and we’ve been trying to break this record for five years.
“There was no thinking behind the idea of the Vauxhall Victor.
“I liked American cars, but they wouldn’t fit in the garage.
“The Victor was American-looking but it would fit.
“I was driving and I saw it sat on someone’s drive and I knocked on asking if they were planning on selling it.
“Forty-seven years on, it’s not the same car but it’s based on it.
“We wanted to make a version of it that would work under drag racing conditions.
“But I liked the shape.
“Weather is critical so it’s impossible in the UK.
“It takes so much planning and if it rains on the day you can’t race.
“The track in the UK is fine, it’s just we needed somewhere that it doesn’t rain.
“They can do more racing in Bahrain in a year than you’d be able to do in five in the UK.
“I will never top that experience, it will never get any better.
“So much work goes into it that there isn’t much to improve on.
“If I hadn’t achieved it I would still be working on it.
“But I don’t know what’s next.”