Back in the 1970s, the CitiCar was a pretty unique little EV. I mean, it has a physical shape and presence that stand out, seemingly no matter what decade you're viewing it in. It had humble aspirations as an EV, but this one is now an absolute drag strip monster thanks to Vasily's mile-long list of modifications.
His opening premise sounds kind of simple: Stuff a Hayabusa engine in the back of this thing and see what happens.
Of course, since he's no stranger to building things himself, and has the welding and machining knowledge and skills to make such feats practical, he went into this project knowing full well that he'd need to do a whole lot of work to get that Hayabusa-plus-Citicar vision to work.
Still, over the course of many months (and videos on his YouTube channel), he did it. He reinforced the chassis, got the engine successfully mounted in the rear, welded in a roll cage, added racing seats and harnesses since he wanted to take this thing to the drag strip, and more. In this video, you'll see him add both a sweet Pingel electric shifter and a super-cheap paddle shifter unit he found on Alibaba. (Hey, he says he paid for both out of pocket, so he can do what he wants with his money, right?)
But while those mods are great and helpful, it's arguably the third upgrade he installs in this video that makes the biggest difference to how Cheesy (that's this car's name, according to the very choice license plate) performs at the strip. A sweet Takasago drag race chain goes on the back, finally giving this thing the strength it needs to consistently perform through all the pulls that Vasily puts it through.
And test it, he does. There are several roll races (done from rolling starts instead of standing starts) where Cheesy smokes the competition. A C5 Corvette? A BMW M5? A turboed S15 Silvia? Please, bring Cheesy some serious competition, will you?!
What's extra awesome about this, though, is that seemingly everyone (or at least, everyone we see in this video) is drawn to Cheesy like it's a giant people magnet. It's totally understandable, too, because there's really nothing quite like the CitiCar in terms of cutting a dashing, fromageresque figure. The car guys, once Vasily chats with them and talks about the modifications he's made, can't help but admire all the work he's put in to making this thing the unassuming beast that it is.
It looks like it wants to be your best friend, but it will absolutely destroy you at the drag strip. If you're cool with that, you should follow Vasily's YouTube channel, because he says he's planning to put Cheesy up for sale soon. Just a little more work (he already swapped the rear glass window out for Lexan) and it'll be good to go, if he can bring himself to part with it.
And you're probably not going to find another one of these showing up at your local drag night.
