Video: Morris Mini hides 500 horses under the hood

This cute urban car came out in the faraway 1974, but despite its respectable age, it can show some modern sports cars the taillights. How so?

Californian tuner Gildred Racing has the answer. Its ‘Super Cooper’ project resulted in this particular Mini getting the iconic Acura J32 V6 3.5 engine. The naturally aspirated mill fell a bit short of expectations, though, so they added a Rotrex C38-81 supercharger to the mix. As a result, the car started delivering 502 hp (375 kW) along with 519 Nm (383 lb-ft) to the wheels!

Aside from the engine swap, the miniature powerhouse received a more modern six-speed manual transmission and RWD (not that hard to implement, given the inter-axle placement of the new engine). The suspension has been lowered, and the exhaust system upgraded to a sportier variant.

Watch the video for the full details on the project.