At only 2.648 cubic inches, this dinky V8 is claimed to be the smallest in the world—but when it starts, it sounds just like a big one. See and hear it run in this fascinating video. 

Is this the smallest V8 ever built? We aren’t the judges of such matters, but at five inches long and with 43.4 cubic centimeters of displacement, this teensy engine looks like a contender to us. We previously featured a  45cc V8 here, but this one appears to be even tinier than that.

James Peter calls his V8 the Challenger 44, and he built it entirely from scratch except for the spark plugs and carburetor, which are model airplane components. For MCG, the best moment of the video was hearing the engine fire up and run—like a full-scale V8 with a healthy cam. “It sounds like a big American V8,” Peter says. “That’s what I had in mind.” Watch and listen.