This Hayabusa V8-Engined Fiat 500's Dyno Run Is Fantastically Violent

When it comes to bike engines in cars, one unit rises above the rest. The 1.3-litre inline-four from the Suzuki Hayabusa has been used in countless vehicles of the four-wheeled variety over the years, both in home-brewed and more official efforts.

From tiny Japanese hatchbacks to track day specials from companies like Radical, it really gets around. The car you see here goes one step further, though, buy using two of them.

Well, kind of - the reality is a little more complicated. What started out life as a Puch 500 (built under license from Fiat) is now a silhouette racer built around a tubular space frame, with propulsion provided by a pair of Hayabusa cylinder heads mated to a custom block. This is a more common arrangement than you might think, and the results are splendid - this one develops 300bhp and revs to 11,000rpm. It also makes for a pleasantly violent run on the dyno.

The mid-engined, rear-wheel drive beast was built by Austrian racer Georg Pacher, who died in 2014. His legacy is continued via the new owner and driver, Bernard Whilhelm, who can be seen piloting the car at an event back in 2019 later in the video.

According to the uploader, Hillclimb Monsters, the car is “set for a number of evolutions during 2021”. So, it could yet become even more unhinged.