I drove a 1984 S10 diesel back in 1985 as a daily work truck. 5 speed with the Isuzu motor. Made 62 horsepower.

Was a solid, reliable rig that was the slowest thing I've ever driven. I ran it constantly with my foot glued to the floorboard.

I can't even imagine how slow it would have been if it had been mated up to a 3 speed automatic.

MORE reliable, mo pOwEr and way scary faster than that 1963 machine ?

Considering that my 63 has been in the 10's at over 130 in the 1/4, wouldn't have been much of a race. That truck couldn't run the quarter in under 20 seconds, I'm betting.

I had a '73 Mercedes 220D that made a whopping 60 flywheel hp. 0-60 was 31 seconds, IIRC, without the a/c on. To pass someone you had to file a flight plan in advance

But once up to speed, that little coffee-grinder diesel would maintain 65 mph up hill and down. I drove it back and forth from Pittsburgh to the DC area many times along the PA turnpike in the 90's, getting 30 mpg at 65-70 mph. Not bad for a full-sized sedan, especially one that old.

Diesel used to be cheaper than gas (still is in Europe), but for a long time it's been even more expensive than premium. Not worth the glacial acceleration any more, since the fuel cost is a wash.

I used to work for a guy who drove a 4 door 5 speed diesel Chevette. You could time it 0-60 with a sundial, but it got over 50 mpg, had 200K on it and hadn't rusted in half, and was in our shop way less than his Mercedes cars.