Ford stuck its three-cylinder, one-litre EcoBoost engine into a Formula Ford race car and went for a blast around the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit.

The little engine powered the Formula Ford car to a time of 7 minutes, 22 seconds to register the eleventh fastest time ever on the circuit. The time was faster than times set by the Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari Enzo and the Pagani Zonda. For the record, no other three or four-cylinder engined car has come close to posting a similar time.

Of course, the race car was modified to be able to drive on the course. Engineers worked for months to to switch the Formula Ford’s usual 132kW,1.6-litre EcoBoost power unit with a specially tuned 150kW version of the company’s new global 1.0-litre EcoBoost petrol engine, which was recently named "International Engine of the Year."

The race car was also modified to be fully street legal and was fitted with wheel covers, front and rear lights and indicators, aerodynamically designed wing mirrors and a horn. The car is fitted with a 6-speed manual gearbox and was driven on road-legal tyres.

"We wanted to prove that size doesn’t matter by showing everyone what an amazingly capable engine we have developed in the 1.0-litre EcoBoost," said Roelant de Waard, vice president of Marketing and Sales, Ford of Europe. "What better way than by beating some of the best supercars in the world on the Nordschleife, while using a fraction of the fuel."

The car has an unofficial top speed of 255.5km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of less than four seconds. Ford also claims that the engine while do a frugal 2.4l/100km at 56 km/h and 5l/100km at 120km/h.

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