VIDEO: Lazareth creates an E85-powered, 500-horsepower quad
Wazuma Bio V12 - Click above to watch the video after the jump
French automobile and motorcycle builder Lazareth has managed to shoehorn an entire BMW V12 engine into one of his crazy Wazuma quad-like machines. Admittedly, there isn't much that's environmentally friendly about a 500-horsepower supercharged V12 engine from BMW that's powering a rather large and impractical quad platform, so Lazareth has apparently decided to try and give the machine a bit of eco-cred by running the engine on E85.
Why use ethanol in a decidedly performance-minded machine? We'd guess Lazareth is using E85 as a fuel due to its superior octane rating, which allows the engine to run higher compression ratios than with gasoline. If you're interested in adding an ethanol-burning, V12-powered road rocket to your own personal stable of vehicles, all you need to do is write Lazareth a check for €200,000 ($283,000) and await your delivery. Click past the break for a video of the Wazuma Bio V12 in action.
[Source: MotoRevue via Faster and Faster]
VIDEO:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt 1:14PM (8/12/2009)
Holy rusted metal Batman! Is that thing street legal?
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guyledouche 1:54PM (8/12/2009)
definitely not in the US. Unless maybe if your in podunk Idaho or something (No laws there) LOL
Thats a good point though. Almost every other country allows four wheel motorcycles (read quads) on their streets, except for the US. It doesnt make any sense. I understand that they can tip a bit more easily but I have been on a stretched out banshee with road tires and that thing was so stable it amazed me. It would probably also allow more people to enjoy "motorcycle-like" transportation that do not want to learn how to ride a traditional 2 wheel bike.
I know Im shooting into the wind, but it just pisses me off how stupid and overbearing our road rules and laws are.
Matt 5:09PM (8/12/2009)
I'm all for safety, but if it's really a motorcycle (and I think this is), why not treat it like one under the law? If you can easily be separated from a vehicle with handle bars and no roof or doors, it's a motorcycle in my book. This one is insane, but nobody is going to mistake the fourth wheel for the safety of an automobile. How do we get our law-makers to flex?
80N541 2:02PM (8/12/2009)
I know lazareth.
His creation are road legal if you make all the papers by yourself. The price is only for the making.
But don't "worry". French rules about that type of vehicle is really hard too >____
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Carney 4:15PM (8/12/2009)
What's interesting is that this vehicle does not seem to be flex-fuel (able to run equally easily on gasoline, or on alcohol fuel such as ethanol, or on any mix of the two), as most E85-compatible vehicles are.
Instead it's E85-only. E85 or nothing. It's actually much easier and somewhat cheaper to engineer a car that can only run on specific fuel than it is to make it flex-fuel, but why cut corners on a €200,000 toy? Restricting it to E85 only makes it much harder to find fuel for it, especially outside the Midwest.
Oh well, I guess you can come right back and ask why anyone should expect practicality on a €200,000 toy either, and forcing users to use E85 is better for the environment at least than using gasoline...
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cWj 12:14AM (8/13/2009)
(ahem)
{SHRIEK}
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b1813611 6:43PM (8/13/2009)
Looks and sounds like crap. Runs rough and almost certainly gets terrible mileage. By all appearances in this video, it doesn't even look to be all that fast. What was the point again aside from being another dumb example of conspicuous consumption? Why not just make a pile of $100 bills adding up to $283,000 and light it on fire?
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