Our sport once dominated by Chrysler Hemi’s and small and big block Chevrolets has seen a huge infiltration of small-cube four- and six-cylinder-powered cars over the last several years — many of them using legitimate stock production parts — that just continually impress with their unbelievable performances on the race track.

Such engines can be found in a multitude of full-bodied cars in the import racing ranks, but over the last two or three seasons, they’ve become more common in lightweight dragster and altered chassis, not just in the states but abroad, as well. And the formula of a lightweight car with an equally lightweight engine and a staggering amount of boost from a turbocharger (or two) makes for some serious potential.

Enter Californian Chad Davis, who went down the road less traveled and assembled a 16-valve, 2.0L, inline 4-cylinder Volkswagen production engine to stuff between the framerails of a dragster. Davis added a Garrett GTX 88mm turbocharger to the equation, and the result was performances well down into the seven-second zone. In late 2013, Davis set the record for a production VW-powered car with a 7.05 at 202.18 mph, but last year, he upped his own ante in a big way, going 6.82 at 200 mph at the Auto Club Dragway in Fontana on a run that saw a head gasket split at 5.5-seconds into the run.

Now, when Davis says he uses a production engine, he really does mean it. The powerplant sports stock VW cylinder heads with no port work whatsoever and stock head gaskets from the local parts store, along with a stock crankshaft, main bearings (with 100,000 miles on them), main caps, and intake plenum. Davis has mastermind tuner Shane Tecklenburg — who is no stranger to making small production engines go fast — assisting with the program, which certainly pays dividends.

Just 20 years ago, it would’ve seemed unfathomable that any small-cube car could run well down in the sixes, much less one with an engine and internal components that actually went up and down the highway for a number of years in a passenger vehicle before being relegated to a life of dragstrip duty. But racers like Chad Davis are proving it’s possible, and there’s no telling what these cars and engines are capable of with more time to fine-tune.