You can trust Russian mechanics to come up with some crazy stuff. This time, they've put a Fiat 124-derived Lada under the knife, and installed 16 chainsaw engines arranged in a V formation – because why not?
This creation comes courtesy of Garage 54, which has a track record of cutting up Ladas to produce some wild creations – one with 14 wheels, another that walks on metal legs, and even one that rides on tank tracks. But this is perhaps the wildest car build I’ve seen this year.
Produced by the Russian company AvtoVAZ from 1969 to 2012, the Lada VAZ-2101 is a Fiat 124 that's adapted for use in Russia. The project started with 16 chainsaws from Germany-based Hüter Technik. The team stripped out the unnecessary components from every chainsaw, pulled out the engine from the car, and established a way to integrate all of them into a single machine.
And kudos to Garage 54 on a rather clever design. Mounted on a specially constructed frame, the chainsaw engines combine to rotate a metal rod via a toothed gear that is welded to each crankshaft.
The 16 cylinders are connected to the gas pedal via a system of wires, while the flywheel, starter motor, and manual gearbox are all retained from the original Lada. Just listen to the grunt of that throttle.
It's a mammoth of a V16 engine too, at 51 inches (130 cm) long. To accommodate it, Garage 54 chopped off the front end of the Lada, extended it and then welded it back in place. Instead of building a hood, the team decided to keep the engine uncovered and I have to say it looks like something straight out of Mad Max.
You might expect an engine of this size to generate significant power, but is that actually the case? Let's crunch some numbers – each chainsaw engine is 58cc in displacement and produces 4.5 horsepower. Multiplying that by 16 yields a 16-cylinder, 928-cc engine that generates 72 hp.
Sure, this doesn't look like it’ll win any drag races but considering that the original car had a 1.7-liter 4-cylinder that produced 80 hp, it’s almost a like-for-like replacement, except for that monstrous V out front.
The thing with many custom builds is that they’re often one-off creations that are designed solely to be gawped at and touched, and are unlikely cover many miles in the real world. This V16 Lada, though, runs and even goes from 0 to 37 mph (60 km/h) in around 26 seconds.
The amount of noise and smoke this thing generates are common traits of a chainsaw engine. The vibrations, though, are enough to give you a full-body massage on that car seat.
Source: Garage 54
