Time trial racing is nothing particularly new in the world of road racing, but the growth of that motorsport area has found people building some incredible purpose-built race cars in recent years. While the Global Time Attack series here in the U.S. draws some interesting cars, the annual World Time Attack Challenge at Sydney Motorsports Park in Australia has ramped up the insanity year after year. The Pro Class cars, mostly highly modified Nissan GT-Rs and Nissan Silvias, have turned up the wick on crazy not just with huge horsepower but also with equally large aerodynamic elements. Incredible downforce and mid-corner adhesion are the orders of the day and at this year’s WTAC last weekend, Supercars driver Tim Slade obliterated the event record with a totally bananas 1:22.19-second lap.

Just two years ago, the fastest WTAC lap was in the high 1:25s and while few thought anyone would eclipse last year’s 1:23.7 record set by Garth Walden in a Mitsubishi Evo 9, Slade did just that with the absolutely insane “Hammerhead” Nissan S13 Silvia. If you’ve not seen this car, MotoIQ’s article on it gets to the bottom of it technically and is worth a read. Slade’s 1:22.1 was more than three seconds quicker than current Virgin Supercars Championship leader Shane Van Gisbergen went in the Hammerhead last year so we’re eager to read more about what evolution of the car bought the car and Holden Racing Team driver Slade that incredible lap time.

Here’s the onboard. The first two minutes are spent on an outlap warming up the tires, but once Slade goes for it, it’s apparent the car is just completely hooked up. Unlike the occasional lap record run where drivers sit on the knife edge of adhesion and saw at the wheel, the Hammerhead is just totally planted for Slade. He’s not making a ton of steering input because the car’s setup must have been as close to perfect as possible and, curiously, it doesn’t look particularly drama-filled. And that’s what makes it so amazing: A drama-free run that is more than 1.5 seconds quicker than anyone has ever gone in a tin-top at Sydney Motorsports Park.

Next up for WTAC: The all-time lap record at the track, a 1:19.1 set by Nico Hulkenberg in an open-wheel A1GP car almost a decade ago. Three seconds is a lot to find in a tin-top car, but then again, the time attack faithful probably thought that a couple years ago.