Unlimited air racing has been dominated throughout by former military fighters of World War II and shortly thereafter. Aircraft designer Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites undertook the design of a modern aircraft to compete with these much older aircraft for owner Bob Pond.
The resulting aircraft was the Pond Racer; much smaller than the older competition but hopefully faster in air racing.
The Pond Racer was powered by two modified auto racing Nissan V-6 engines driving four-bladed props and first flew in 1991. Unfortunately, the aircraft was unsuccessful and crashed in its second race, killing the pilot and destroying the aircraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaled...tes_Pond_Racer