Awesome Garage 54

After building a V16 engine from chainsaws, the madmen at Garage 54 returned to their workshop to make another crazy engine. They built the engine by securing 50 cordless drills to a frame, fitted them with pulleys, and connected them to a driveshaft with belts. After wiring them to a single power switch, they jammed it into a heavily modded Lada.

Ice-drifting in a Miata is a fun way to spend a day. The guys at Garage 54 had a different idea for driving a Mazda in the winter. Their plan? Take the front half of a junkyard Mazda, attach an underbody sled, and slide it around on the snow. Since the donor car was front-wheel drive, no rear wheels were needed.

Garage 54 adds to their collection of whacked-out Ladas with the craziest engine swap we’ve ever seen. Or should we call it an engines swap? To power this dumpy Russian sedan, they replaced its factory power plant with 16 chainsaws connected in parallel to a single driveshaft. There’s an second video showing how they built the engine.

Garage 54 proves yet again that just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done. This time, the Russian auto channel fabricated a set of tires made from thousands of individual nails, then fitted their Mercedes G-Wagen with them to see how it would handle. They provide good grip on snow and ice, but they gather more trash than a Katamari.

There are good reasons that vehicles are driven on pneumatic rubber tires. But after seeing a rusty bike wheel wrapped in springs, the guys from Garage 54 thought it would be fun to test the idea by creating a set of tires from thick coil springs. They mounted them on a Mercedes G-Wagon to see if they could improve traction and off-road capabilities.

You know those toy cars that move using a flywheel? The car-chopping madmen of Garage 54 took another rusted-out old Lada and fitted it with such a mechanism. They connected its engine and transmission to the flywheel via a differential, pulley, and belts. After giving the car some gas, let it coast to see how far it would go under flywheel power.

The guys at Garage 54 seem to have an infinite supply of junker Ladas lying around their workshop. In this video, they took one of the notoriously bad Russian compact cars and cut away half of its body and chassis. By keeping the engine, transmission, driveshaft, axles, and exhaust system in place, it’s still fully driveable.

The guys at Garage 54 are usually doing unnatural things to cheap Russian cars. This time they decided to do something completely different and put a bunch of time and energy into casting and assembling a completely transparent 4-cylinder engine block. It looks fantastic, but can they actually get it to run?

Most gas-powered cars use a large, 12-volt battery to start their engines. The guys from Garage 54 previously figured out it was possible to start a car with 1000 AA batteries, but this time they conducted a little experiment to see how few of the 1.5-volt batteries you could get away with. They should try it again with rechargeables.

We’ve had the pleasure of driving a customized Nissan Altima with snow tracks. This build from Garage 54 is the low-budget equivalent of that, using a janky old Lada and fitting it with dual rear tires wrapped in metal tracks. It’s definitely not the most agile vehicle in the snow, but it is able to drive on some sloppy powder.

The guys from Garage 54 have done all kinds of stupid things to Lada cars. For this experiment, they wanted to see if they could turn one of the old Russian jalopies into an improvised helicopter by connecting its drivetrain to a propeller on its roof. Place your bets now on whether this thing will ever get off the ground.

Normally, a vehicle’s suspension sits between the frame and the wheels to absorb shocks. After seeing a vintage photograph of a car wheel with springs built into it, the car hackers at Garage 54 built their own to see how it would affect ride quality. It sounded like a busted shopping cart after the rubber came off.

The guys from Garage 54 are in the business of doing stupid things to cars. Recently, they chopped off the rear axle and one wheel from another old Lada then reconnected it directly to the drive shaft. It’s now a vomit-inducing donut machine – though it can never drive in a straight line again.

So what could be better than a crappy old Italian car with eight wheels? How about an even crappier old Russian car with six more wheels? Thanks to the insane minds at Garage 54, your dream has come true – assuming that dream includes six axles and giant tractor wheels on front.

We didn’t have the patience to wait for the English translation of this Garage 54 video, because it’s too ridiculous to pass up. Stick around and you’ll see them replace the chassis of their see-through Lada with a wonky homemade platform and tall springs that lift the car’s body about 3 feet off the ground. Body roll, anyone?

The guys from Russian car hacking channel Garage 54 have outdone themselves with this crazy build. After cutting the driver’s side off one Lada and the passenger side off another, they tinkered with the mechanicals and welded them together. The result is a ridiculous extra-wide Lada that needs two drivers to steer. Part 2 here.