A V-8 engine with lots of cubic inches is an easy way to make enough horsepower to push a car into the 8-second zone, but Jason Bello doesn’t really subscribe to that thought process. Bello’s hatchback Honda Civic lays down 8-second passes like they’re going out of style with just 2.7-liters of displacement under the hood.

Import drag racers have always been on the receiving end of jokes about their cars, but times have changed and many of these drivers are running as fast, or even faster than their domestic counterparts. Bello’s Civic is one nasty car that uses a JBR Engines-built K25 Honda engine for power. To give the small displacement engine just a little more pep in its step some nitromethane is added to the fuel. The car weighs in at a scant 1,800-pounds, so it needs every bit of the 600 horsepower the engine can produce to crack into the 8-second zone.

Currently, Bello owns the Outlaw FWD all-motor record here in the United States with a blistering 8.64-second pass at 162 mph. The only other cars close to that level of performance can be found in other parts of the world and are tube chassis machines that never came off the assembly line at Honda, like Bello’s car did.

Orlando Speed World Dragway in Florida played host to an import racing event where Bello added a little bit of weight to his Civic to get in on the action. During the race, Bello was ripping off eights like a bracket car and that was all he needed to pick up the win. Check out the footage from 1320Video that shows Bello ripping gears in his Civic while laying waste to the competition.