Over in Thailand, long tail canal boat racing has become one of the most popular forms of motorsport in the region. Much like club-level road racing in the United States, many of these teams are small grassroots efforts, largely organized in order to get a shop’s name on the map and earn some bragging rights in the process.

While most teams are tooling around with small displacement motorcycle engines, this particular team that goes by the name of Taklong Racing has taken a substantially different approach, strapping a turbocharged diesel motor to the back of this light weight vessel. The results are awe inspiring.

Details are scarce about the particulars of the build, but the power to weight ratio here speaks for itself when our captain drops the hammer and sends a massive wake behind the boat as the surrounding neighborhood quickly becomes a blur.

Commenters on the video page claim this guy is using a 2008-2011 Isuzu 3.0-liter common-rail turbo-diesel 4JJ engine with an aftermarket computer to bypass standard settings and adjust injection, which would explain the abundance of black smoke. Hooked to a manual gearbox and a drive shaft that’s in turn connected to a propeller, the boat also sports tiller steering, making this one hell of a crazy redneck contraption.

While it may not be the fastest (or safest) way to get down the canal, it’s certainly one of the most head-turning – if you can see the boat through the spray it sends up. Hit that clip above to see what we mean.

Photo courtesy of: Black Smoke Media