Who in their sane mind would think that a 1998 BMW 3 Series would be capable of 880 Newton-meters of torque? The E36 318i Coupe depicted here normally comes equipped with a gasoline engine yielding only 114 hp (85 kW) along with 168 Nm (124 lb-ft) of peak torque, but ManTec Racing swaps it to a powerful diesel.
The team headed by Günther Manhart throws out the stock mill and puts a 3.0-liter six-banger of the BMW X6 xDrive (E71) in its place. A purpose-built exhaust system, a huge intercooler and an ECU upgrade enable a boost to 410 hp (306 kW) and 880 Nm (650 lb-ft) of torque. Modern SUVs and pickups would do well with that kind of torque, let alone the old 1998 BMW M3 that maxed out at just 300 Nm (221 lb-ft)!
Needless to say, the tuner had to ditch the regular transmission and put the X6 eight-speed automatic in its place. With that kind of power under the hood, the unassuming coupe sprints to 100 km/h (62 mph) in under five seconds and maxes out above 300 km/h (186 mph). Quite crazy for a diesel build, wouldn’t you say?