The 128 MPG Urba Centurion DIY Diesel Kit Car Looks Fast, But Isn’t

Gas prices in many parts of the country have come down to what many people would call “reasonable” rates, leading to an upsurge in truck, SUV, and sports car sales. But we’ve seen this story play out plenty of times over the past few decades, as low gas prices never last long, and some of us would rather not be stuck with a 13 mpg motor vehicle next time around. But that doesn’t mean you have to drive a Prius. Why not an Urba Centurion instead?

Never heard of the Urba? Most people haven’t, as it’s a somewhat obscure kit car conceived of in the early 1980s that really only has one thing going for it; insanely high fuel economy. Green Car Reports takes us back to the Reagan era, when the Urba first burst onto the scene as a panacea to America’s gas price problems. Sure, it never really caught on, but the Urba is still pretty neat…and we can think of some upgrades that would make it a whole lot better.

Introduced in 1982 in the pages of Mechanix Illustrated, the Urba Centurion was sold as a set of detailed blueprints, requiring would-be buyers to source all the parts and do all the building themselves. Designed to sit on a Triumph Spitfire chassis, the Urba looks like a cross between a race car and a star fighter. It even earned a cameo role in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 90s sci-fi flick, Total Recall, albeit as an autonomous taxi.

Not that the 18 hp, three-cylinder diesel engine was capable of anything one might consider “spirited” driving, and the Urba had all the “performance” of a Smart ForTwo. And while it is technically capable of achieving 128 mpg, that’s only if the driver maintains a constant speed of 35 mph. In “regular” driving, the Urba’s fuel economy falls to a much less impressive 40 mpg, and its top speed of 55 mph means that highway driving is all but off limits. Boo, right?

But imagine, if you will, replacing that turd of a diesel engine with something more potent… like, say, one of BMW’s new TwinPower three-cylinder diesels, making up to 85 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque. That’s literally four times more power to play with, and considering there are just three Urba Centurions known to exist in the world, you’d definitely stand out at the next car show.