How do you turn an iconic British economy car into a serious FWD performance machine? From the looks of this Mini currently listed on Ebay it appears a very good answer to that question involves stuffing a 170hp engine from a Yamaha R1 underneath the hood of the tiny car.

The oldest unrestored Austin Mini in the world and the eight example ever built exceeded its pre-auction estimate by nearly three times when it sold at auction this past Monday for an amazing £40,250 (right around $65,000).

It might just look like another old Mini in need of some love, but this particular tiny Brit is actually the eighth of the million+ cars built over the models 41 years in production.

The Cummins V18 diesel, typically found in earth-moving equipment, produces over 10,000 lb-ft of torque in this elongated Mini. That may be enough power to move its 11-ton heft, but doing so would likely crush the car. [Diariomotor (Translated)]

The Austin Mini had the fourth-longest production run of any car in history, behind only the Volkswagen Type I, the Morgan 4/4, and the Morris Oxford/Hindustan Motors Ambassador. By 1989, it still had 11 more years to go!

Why drag a car behind your bus-conversion RV when you can stow it inside? Sure, we've seen that concept before, but the Shorty Mini out-awesomes the Volkner by several orders of magnitude.

This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Not only is TheEastBayKid a DOTS honoree, he shoots DOTSBE photos while on vacation.

There wasn't much question that the Index Of Effluency trophy (which goes to the team that totally overachieves, given their questionable choice of car) would go to one of the two 1960s British cars.

Some of you observant types might notice that British Leyland and the Rootes Group were totally separate corporations, but we like to fill up tables think their ads go together quite well!