This 40 HP Time Attack Kei Truck Made Rob Dahm Forget Lamborghinis

Shawn Bassett builds cars that compete at Pikes Peak. His full carbon Datsun 240Z time attack machine is an engineering weapon backed by sponsors like Toyo Tires, Haltech, and CSF Cooling. So naturally, his next project was a 1990 Mitsubishi Minicab that spent its first life delivering fish at a Japanese market. Five weeks of fabrication later, it rolled onto the Toyo Tires Treadpass at SEMA 2023 with a massive APR Performance rear wing, full race suspension, side mounted radiators, and 40 horsepower from a stock three cylinder engine that was never meant to do anything more aggressive than idle in traffic.

Race Engineering on a 660cc Budget

Bassett's shop, Attacking the Clock Racing in Florida, specializes in time attack vehicles. The discipline is straightforward: one driver, one car, one shot to set the fastest possible lap time. Where other builders chase horsepower, Bassett chases grip. That philosophy makes a kei truck an almost logical choice if you think about it long enough. The Minicab weighs under 1,800 pounds stock. Strip the interior to bare essentials and you are working with a platform lighter than most sport bikes with luggage.

The suspension tells the story. AST Moton coilovers at all four corners, fully adjustable. A custom four link setup in the rear replacing the stock leaf springs. Barge boards behind the front wheels manage airflow into the wheel wells. The radiator and oil cooler relocated to the sides of the bed, freeing up space and improving weight distribution. Work Wheels wrapped in Toyo rubber at each corner. And then there is that wing: a full size APR Performance unit sized for cars making three or four times the Minicab's power.

Rob Dahm, riding shotgun on Top Gear's American Tuned series, asked the obvious question: why put a wing that big on a truck making 40 horsepower? Bassett's answer was perfectly honest. The wing is waiting for the engine that deserves it. A turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa motor is next on the build sheet, which would put somewhere around 190 HP into a truck that weighs less than a Miata. Until that swap happens, the Minicab runs its stock 660cc three cylinder through a four speed manual, making it one of the slowest time attack vehicles in history and easily one of the most entertaining.

Why "Slow" Does Not Mean "Boring"

When Gears and Gasoline brought the Minicab to Virginia International Raceway for their Track Tested series, it posted lap times in the deep three minute range. For reference, a stock Camaro SS runs VIR in about two minutes. The Minicab was comically, beautifully slow on the straights. The corners told a different story entirely.

With fully adjustable suspension tuned by a guy who tunes Pikes Peak cars, the Minicab turned in sharper than trucks five times its price. Mechanical grip from the Toyo tires, combined with the low center of gravity and featherweight mass, meant Bassett could carry corner speed that the aero data said should not work yet. As Jalopnik put it: "There is nothing in motorsport better than a vehicle wholly unfit for purpose."

That captures exactly why this build matters beyond the spectacle. Kei trucks are not race cars. They were never supposed to be fast. But the gap between what a kei truck is designed to do and what it can be made to do is where all the fun lives. Our off road mods guide covers suspension and tire upgrades for any kei truck platform, but Bassett's Minicab proves the ceiling is far higher than most owners imagine.

Top Gear and the Mainstream Crossover

When Rob Dahm said "Lamborghinis are played out, this is where it's at" from the passenger seat of a fish market truck, the serious half of that joke is what matters for the kei truck community.

Top Gear is the biggest automotive media brand on the planet. American Tuned, their YouTube series with Dahm, reaches millions of viewers per episode. When that platform points its camera at a 1990 Mitsubishi Minicab and gives it the same enthusiasm they reserve for Porsche GT3s and Corvette ZR1s, it signals that kei trucks have crossed from curiosity to legitimate automotive platform.

This follows a pattern. Red Bull put F1 drivers in Honda Acty kei trucks and the video pulled over 24 million views. Hoonigan has featured multiple builds. At SEMA, kei trucks have gone from parking lot oddities to main floor attractions. Bassett's build was displayed at the Toyo Tires Treadpass, not in some forgotten corner of the outdoor lot. The r/keitruck community has watched this coverage snowball with a mix of excitement and the protective instinct of anyone who loved something before it got popular.

For the community, mainstream coverage does more than generate clicks. It builds the infrastructure of legitimacy that makes state legislatures take these vehicles seriously, makes insurance companies write policies for them, and makes parts suppliers stock inventory. Every Top Gear viewer who searches "what is a kei truck" after watching Bassett's Minicab rip through a corner is one more person in the pipeline.

Getting Started Without a Pikes Peak Resume

You do not need a motorsport pedigree to modify a kei truck. Bassett's build is the extreme end, but the platform he started with is the same one available from any US importer for $5,000 to $8,000. A 1990 Minicab qualifies under the 25 year import rule, making it federally legal to import. State registration varies, so check the state legality guide for your area.

The Minicab shares its three cylinder engine architecture with the rest of the Mitsubishi kei lineup, and parts are available through specialists like Oiwa Garage and Amayama. Whether you are building for the track, the trail, or just the look, run through our pre-purchase checklist before you hand over any cash, and browse the dealer directory to find an importer near you.

And if you happen to have a spare Hayabusa engine lying around, Shawn Bassett has already proven the concept works.