Video: This decades-old drag racing record stays unbeaten to this day

Isn’t it about time we remembered how fast dedicated dragsters could really be? An old video shows one such vehicle finishing a quarter-mile run in unthinkable 3.22 seconds.

The car was piloted by Sammy Miller, and the race itself took place on the Zandvoort Circuit in the Netherlands. The engine power amounted to 28,000 horsepower, or nearly 20.6 megawatts if you prefer. The finish speed amounted to 647 kilometers, or 402 miles, per hour.

For reasons left unexplained, the record time of 3.22 seconds was never registered officially; despite that, Miller has been widely considered a new champion of the quarter-mile. His best official result is not really any less exciting at 3.58 seconds. He attained it in 1984, and no one has been able to best it since.

And the takeaway is, while modern hypercars may hit 100 km/h in a couple of seconds, they still need way more time to finish a quarter-mile drag strip than a dedicated dragster does. Be sure to watch the video, you’ll like it!