Got my first Turbodiesel in 91, a Passat 1.6l TD with 75hp.
A famous german tuner called Sepp Pappmahl had a tuning kit consisting of an intercooler and an oil cooler. The squeezed the pump in the right way up to 115hp.

after getting totaled by a beginner, I got a Golf 2 TD, same engine. I sold the intercooler and got a intercooler from a G60 limited, about twice the dimensions of the Pappmahl intercooler.
The lightweight of the Golf and the torque of the Diesel turned it into a GTI chaser with low fuel costs.
VW's are long gone, but Diesels still bring me reliable to every place I wanted to go.
After being kind a normal with a Diesel Jetta the bug hit me again. I transplanted into a natural aspirated VW Polo Diesel a KKK 03 turbo:
To give an impression of the small size of a VW Polo here some pics.
It has an empty weight of 1600lbs with a 48hp stock 1.4l Diesel engine.



An added intercooler of an SAAB 9000 turbo fitted excatly into it. I also had to add an ALDA onto the IP with a changed pump compressor centerrod to deliver more fuel.



After refitting the front bumper the intercooler is almost invisible. That tiny car has 120hp, front vented and slotted discs as rear converted disc brakes. Yellow Koni shocks and a sport suspension and went around the cornes like a go kart.
Max speed was limited to 182km/h(113mph) due to the Diesel gearing. But accelration was real fun.
Most interesting: mileage: about 55mpg if driven normal.
trailer hitch included...


Sometimes I whish I had kept the Polo instead the Jeep...

 

Shoulda got a 7.3

 

No one else got the bug? I always enjoy story time

 

The bug hit me when I was a kid in the early 80's. My dad had a pulling unit service and his rigs had Detroit diesels in them. He would always let me fill them up with diesel while the crew would continue to work the well. The smell of spent diesel is still one of the best smells I've ever witnessed and to this day I still love it. Then, a few years back I got into my own used dealership selling trucks here at my house in the country and I always tried to acquire diesels to re-sell. I have a sickness/love for diesels that has no cure. I'm not really looking for a cure either. I'm getting ready, in the next 8-9 months, to buy an o'10 or an o'11 Ram. I just gotta get some bills out of the way first and I can't wait.

 

No kidding, my house is just down the road from a potato farmer and a couple of my buddies drove trucks for him a couple years ago and I rode with them, at that time not knowing how to drive stick shift. Well, at the end of the night, they were supposed to fill the trucks and since its a farm its red diesel. I'm not sure apple pie smells better than that. When I bought my truck, a farmer had it, and as soon as I got home and parked it, I knew that smell and wouldn't ya know it the rear tank was full of red.