Despite its general appearance a ⅘-scale Ford Mustang, the first-generation Toyota Celica doesn’t have a massive reputation as a drag car. However, English shop MGT, who are traditionally Nissan Skyline specialists, built a mean Celica drag car a few years ago. Under the hood was a straight-six—I think a 2JZ—with a prehistoric-snail-size turbo force-feeding it. It’s logged 8-second ET’s in the past, making it a seriously quick drag racing rig, but that came after time and testing. That testing, incidentally, included one of the craziest near-miss wheelstands you’ll ever see at Santa Pod Raceway in 2012.

The Celica’s driver looks skyward immediately off the line and the nose drops hard as the car starts to veer toward the left lane, where a Volkswagen Cabriolet’s driver wisely smashed on the middle pedal quickly. The Celica driver collects the 330-foot marker and then wallows and bumps and bounds along for a while the completely decimated steering component scatter across Santa Pod’s racing surface. Somehow, the Celica comes to a halt just a couple inches from the left wall and despite the massive impact the front wheels mashed the ground, MGT reported that the only broken parts were the steering and a pancaked exhaust exit that had previously dumped out the passenger side.