Are Two Engines Better Than One – The Camp Dogs’ Starlet

The automotive internet is full of high-horsepower builds, but few capture the sheer chaotic brilliance of Australian shed engineering quite like the Camp Dog’s Twin-Engine Starlet

Built by Matt Berry and Nick Kamevaar this little blue hatchback, often dubbed the “Evil Twin,” is a masterclass in ingenuity. By stuffing a second engine into the boot of a lightweight economy car, they transformed a humble grocery getter into a 600-horsepower, all-wheel-drive monster that confuses dynos and terrifies passengers.

The goal was simple: turn a front-wheel-drive (FWD) Toyota Starlet into an all-wheel-drive (AWD) drag weapon without using a conventional driveshaft tunnel or rear differential. The solution was to leave the front factory drivetrain exactly where it was and mirror it in the back using a front subframe from another Starlet and simply welding it in place.

Two forged Toyota Paseo 5E-FTE engines power Evil Twin with a Pulsar G30 770 turbo each, and a suite of shiny billet parts and two fully built auto gearboxes help get that power to the ground. Two Elite 1500‘s, two widebands, and two keypads. Anything you can think of, they’ve doubled.

As the two engines can operate independently of each other, the Starlet can technically be classed as FWD, RWD and AWD. Break one engine? simply turn the other one on and drive away (which the boys have had to do before).

The Camp Dogs Starlet is more than your average “Backyard Build,” it represents the peak of “because we can” car culture. It proves that you don’t need a million-dollar budget nor a dedicated race team to build something world-class. That with a welder, some spare Toyota parts (or a whole car) and enough determination, anything is possible, regardless of how crazy it may seem.

“Everything is a dream until you make it possible”

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