Watch an unholy quad-engine Lada come to life

There’s no replacement for displacement, so when the Garage 54 crew decided that its Lada project car needed more grunt,  what was there to do except add engines in front to create an inline-eight and then an inline 12-cylinder monstrosity? Now Garage 54 one-upped its triple-engine triumph with an additional engine, bringing the cylinder count to 16, the displacement to 5.6 liters, and the insanity up at least a few more notches.

The recipient of all this automotive butchery is a Lada Classic that has had a new crossmember cobbled on at the front end, reinforced with rectangular tubing. The engines are joined by welding a clutch pressure plate to a crank pulley, with no lathe or any other machinery used to ensure everything is centered.

The result is an inline-16 that, no surprise, runs exactly like four inline-fours hastily joined together. They shake and shudder at the turn of the starter and never sync up. It seems like only a matter of time before they shake themselves to pieces and break free of their mounts, yet the car holds together for several acceleration runs on a snow-covered street, aided by homemade studded tires.

With such wild ideas and the attitude to make their bizarre creations come to life, Garage 54 continues to entertain and nothing is lost in translation. They’ve had some fun with engine swaps since this 16-cylinder masterpiece, but the latest video in the multi-engine Lada saga may be tough to top.