Getting your hot rod to move out at the drag strip takes a simple formula: big power plus light weight will give you quick elapsed times and big mile per hour. Think about your average dragster that weighs around 1,600 pounds but has around 700 horsepower to the wheels and that’s good enough to dip into the low eights. But not everyone is about the dragster life; some racers like to go fast in a door car, or in this case an SUV without doors….in a V8-powered, 10 second Suzuki Samurai.

The Suzuki Samurai was introduced back in the 1960s as a compact sized Jeep-type SUV.  From the factory the Samurai came with several different small engines mated to a manual transmission, mostly geared towards rough terrain use. When the mini SUV came to the United States owners started to lift them and add giant tires to aid in offroad fun. But they certainly never came like this.

Like so many other non-performance vehicle makes and models out there, someone has V8-swapped this Samurai, but took it a bit further and turned it into a drag car. uRaceIfilm happened to catch the small tire Samurai running at the Maryland International Raceway during the Import vs Domestic World Cup. This particular swapped Samurai has incorporated a small block Chevy into the driveline. “El Trauma” is dialed in at a 10.00 and leaves hard on the wheelie bars in this race, getting the win and running a 10.20 in the process. Would you make passes in something that resembles a go kart with a V8 under the hood?