1968 Camaro TDI Is A 40 MPG Turbodiesel Hot Rod

The world of muscle cars is full of big cars with massive motors with as much displacement as the soda aisle at your local grocery store. But big engines aren’t as cool as they used to be, and Americans are increasingly turned on to the idea of turbodiesel engines, and not just for their new cars. In the grand tradition of hot rodding, somebody has installed a 1.9 liter Volkswagen TDI engine into a 1968 Camaro. Some might cry heresy, and others might wonder what’s the point. Me? I’m just pissed somebody beat me to the punch.

Seriously, the Volkswagen 1.9 liter TDI engine is both durable and packing a good bit of performance potential…if you know what you’re doing. The guy who built this badass blacked-out Camaro certainly did, somehow splicing the TDI’s wiring harness into the Camaros. After a deal to turn this ‘68 Camaro into a drag car fell through, the owner was left with two options; scrap it, or keep it. He obviously opted to keep the Camaro, but lacked a proper V8 to put under the hood, which is where the turbodiesel motor enters the equation.

Make no mistake, this motor isn’t going to set the streets on fire, as in stock form it made between 105 and 130 horsepower-ish. With some new injectors, a bigger turbo, tuning, and a few other improvements, this tiny motor could easily push out 200 horsepower…which still isn’t that much. But the torque, oh god the torque. Despite displacing less than a two-liter bottle of soda, this engine can crank out 400 ft-lbs of torque when properly tuned, and still glide along the highway at 40 MPG all day.

What’s not to love?

To top it all off, it even appears to have a manual transmission for some gratifying shift-for-yourself action . There’s so much win in this eBay ad, I’m not even going to question the $22,390 asking price. I’d rather rock this flat black turbodiesel beast all day than a twice-as-powerful 5th generation Camaro V6. The cool factor is just off the charts, and I can imagine all the sputtering and spinning heads when the little TDI fires up and coughs up black smoke from the back.

Blowing minds and racking up big MPGs, that’s what this turbodiesel Camaro is all about.

Source: Gas 2.