Leaning Quad With a Maserati V8? What a Lovely Way to Die

Don't bother filling out your organ donor card.
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Ludovic Lazareth is not the lead singer of a European Black Metal band, but might as well be. Witness his company’s flesh-consuming Lazareth LM847, just revealed at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, and dominated by a Maserati V8 mounted amidships. Don’t bother filling out your organ donor card; crash this thing at speed and you’ll just be a medium-sized cloud of pink mist.

This French-Swiss machine is a pretty simple creation at heart. The transmission is a single-speed affair, with twin chain drives for the rear tires. The rear end is lifted from a Ducati Panigale 1299, and the brakes feature huge 8-piston Nissin calipers up front and 4-piston Brembos out back. More a quad than a motorcycle, the four-wheeled LM847 has to be leaned over to turn, if you’ve got the stones.

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Lazareth

But like the Viper-engined Dodge Tomahawk, the LM847 is all about the engine. In this case, it’s a 32-valve, 4.7-liter Maserati V8, cranking out 470 horsepower and 457 pound-feet. The rider essentially lies atop the intake manifold, feeling the beat of those eight pistons hammering away inside your ribcage as the Italian-made lump screams towards a 7,000-rpm redline. The rider, presumably, is expected to do some of the screaming as well.

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Lazareth

Long and unwieldy though it may be, curb weight for this monstrosity is under 900 pounds, giving it a power-to-weight ratio normally reserved for the Apollo missions. Unlike a manned Moon mission, however, once you light the candle on the LM847, you’re not ever coming back.

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Lazareth
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Lazareth
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Lazareth