The Lazareth LM 847 Is A Preposterous 470 HP Four-Wheeled Motorcycle With The V8 Of A Maserati Quattroporte

One of my favorite ways to pass the time is finding the most ridiculous, garish, and ill-advised motorcycle creations ever conceived. You can buy a motorcycle powered by a turbine engine, one with a bigger engine than many of today’s crossovers, and even one with GM LS V8 power. But, what if today’s motorcycles just aren’t preposterous enough for you? Look no further than the Lazareth LM 847. For the price of $226,900, a French motorcycle builder will give you a bike with four wheels, incredible styling, and oh, 470 HP thanks to a 4.7-liter engine borrowed from a Maserati Quattroporte.

The Lazareth LM 847 is not a new creation. It’s been around since 2016 when it first made a buzz in the media. Back then, the bike was so shocking that it was even covered by outlets that weren’t vehicle-oriented. What has blown my mind is the fact that today, nearly eight years later, Lazareth is still willing to sell you one of these wild motorcycles. Well, so long as you have a cool $226,900 in cash lying around, anyway.

Though, I suppose calling this four-wheeled contraption a motorcycle would be a stretch. But what do you call it? The Lazareth LM 847 isn’t a car and it doesn’t really fit the traits of other vehicles, either. Maybe we’ll call it one of the quickest ways to meet Death before his next stop.

Lazareth Motors

The Lazareth 847 is the brainchild of Frenchman Ludovic Lazareth, and he’s been making heart-pounding machines for decades.

Lazareth graduated from the Espera Sbarro school of design in 1992. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the school was founded by none other than famed Swiss designer Franco Sbarro. Given Sbarro’s unique designs, it makes sense that Lazareth would also end up making his own out-of-this-world vehicles. Out of school, Lazareth joined Aixam-Mega’s development team. Aixam-Mega is the French company behind the wild Mega Track V12 off-road supercar and some adorable city cars.

In 1998, Lazareth freed himself from the shackles of working for someone else when he left Aixam and opened up his own shop, Lazareth Motors. His company gained manufacturer status in France in 2005 and since then, he’s created a number of frankly stunning vehicles. Lazareth puts them into low production too, as he’s built over 100 of his machines since opening shop. Lazareth Motors is a small shop consisting of Lazareth plus a team of designers, engineers, and fabricators. Their job? Create the vehicles that you’d think you’d see only in science fiction.

After its manufacturing approval, Lazareth Motors got started on its sci-fi creations. In 2006, Lazareth unveiled the Quadrazuma, above, a weird road-based quad with steering parts from a Renault Twingo and a 120-horsepower Yamaha GTS 1000 engine, and brakes from the Yamaha R1 sportbike. Ever wanted to go 125 mph on a quad? Well, there’s your ticket.

In 2007, Lazareth set out to build a better Buell Lightning XB12S, taking the quirky American streetfighter and fitting it with a supercharger from a Mini Cooper S. In terms of aesthetics, it’s one of Lazareth’s more tame creations, and you can still see the Buell under the changes. Just look at the image of this thing!

Lazareth really liked making quads to go with his motorcycles. In 2009, the firm lifted a turbocharged 5.0-liter V12 engine out of a BMW and lowered it into the Lazareth Wazuma V12, below, a vehicle that looks like what racers would ride if there was a quad version of Formula 1. It makes 500 HP and races to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds, all while you hold on for dear life. Your only saving grace was its $284,000, ensuring few would dare to chance a ride on one.

If 500 ponies were too much for you, Lazareth also made the Wazuma V8F, which made a more tame 250 horses from a 3.0-liter Ferrari V8. However, it wasn’t much cheaper, as you still had to pay $261,000 for it.

Then there was the Lazareth Wazuma GT, which is sort of like a Polaris Slingshot, but has four wheels with a wide track up front and a narrow track in the rear. That one came with a 4.0-liter V8 borrowed from Jaguar, which propelled the 2,170-pound vehicle with 375 horsepower.

For fans of two-wheelers, Lazareth has given folks plenty to love. There’s the Roadster V6, which places the 1.8-liter V6 engine from the Mazda MX-3 into a custom bike, above. Later, Lazareth turned a BMW R 1200 R into a scrambler and a Yamaha YZF-R1 customized into an outrageous café racer for the Vin Diesel film Babylon A.D.

All of these are incredible, and I can’t include everything ever built by Lazareth because I don’t have all day. Lazareth even made an electric motorcycle that transforms into a VTOL using four turbine engines.

Eventually, Lazareth discovered the 4.7-liter Ferrari F136 V8 housed in the fifth-generation of the Maserati Quattroporte. Lazareth Motors started dropping these engines in various creations, including an amphibious Mini Moke. Yes, you read that right! Did you want a 470 HP Italian V8-powered Mini Moke? If you didn’t, you might now.

Something notable about Lazareth’s builds is the fact that he often starts with an engine, and then builds a vehicle around the engine. Perhaps the best example of this is the Lazareth LM 847, which looks like an engine with some wheels attached to it.

The Lazareth LM 847

In 2016, Lazareth unveiled his latest creation. The Lazareth LM 847 promised to be one of the most outrageous motorcycles ever put into production.

Beginning in 1984, France’s highway code restricted motorcycle engine output to 100 HP. So, if you bought some high-powered machine, you had to install a restrictor that limited you to just 100 ponies. Weirdly, France was the only EU member to have enacted such a restriction. The law was lifted when the European Union decreed that its members couldn’t limit the power of motorcycles. As of January 1, 2016, motorcyclists in France were able to buy a motorcycle with as much power as they wanted, so long as the bike was Euro 3 or Euro 4 compliant and had ABS.

While it wasn’t advertised as such, the Lazareth LM 847 is quite possibly the biggest middle finger to the old 100 HP limitation. Lazareth started with the aforementioned 4.7-liter 32-valve V8 lifted from a Maserati Quattroporte. From there, Lazareth tuned the engine to 470 HP. We aren’t talking about a huge bump here. When housed in a Quattroporte Sport GT S, these engines were good for 450 HP.

Of course, 470 horses are a lot of thoroughbreds to send through a single motorcycle tire, so Lazareth gave the LM 847 two rear tires, which get their own swingarms and their own drive chains. While you’re still looking at the rear, check out that shock. You’d think that a motorcycle with two individual swingarms would get their own suspensions, but nope, a single transverse-mounted TFX shock takes care of business.

Also note the Ducati Panigale tail, which somehow works despite, you know, everything bolted to the front of it.

You’ll also notice that like the Dodge Tomahawk concept, this “motorcycle” has a total of four wheels. Lazareth says this aids in stability while optimizing the LM 847’s 881 pounds of weight and 8.5 feet of length. I’ve ridden Harleys that weighed about this, but they weren’t powered by wide V8 engines pumping out 470 HP and 457 lb-ft of torque. So, the Lazareth four-wheel pendulum system supposedly helps you get the power down while also not totally ruining handling.

Those front wheels are attached with their own swingarms and use a hub-center steering system for control. Speaking of control, handling the beast is another weird affair. Lazareth gave the motorcycle wide bars with inverted levers. What’s wild is that when the motorcycle is leaned over, the front end, including the headlights and windscreen, also split. The steering system also goes right through a section of the upper intake manifold and the motorcycle’s throttle body is also exposed.

Finally, we arrive in the middle, where there’s that wonderful engine. The rider rests their feet on footboards and thankfully, they don’t have to shift gears with this monster. The engine delivers its power through a single-speed transmission coupled with a torque converter. Since the bike is rather massive, you do get a handy electric reverser to get you out of parking spaces. The brakes are almost as large as the bike is as you get a meaty pair of 420 mm discs up front clamped on by 8-piston Brembo calipers. A pair of 255 mm rotors take the rear with their own 4-piston Brembo calipers. Of course, as required, you do get ABS.

In terms of performance? Well, it seems like nobody has dared to see how fast the Lazareth LM 847 goes. Lazareth says the bike will go from 0 mph to 90 mph in a few seconds. No top speed is quoted, but you do get a cruiser-esque lean angle of 30 degrees.

Together, all of this wacky engineering makes for a machine rivaled only by the Dodge Tomahawk concept and the Millyard Dodge Viper V10-powered motorcycle. However, the Dodge was sold only as a very limited production non-functional promotional art piece and Allen Millyard’s record breaker is a one-off creation.

Back in 2016, Lazareth announced a production run of 10 examples. By 2017, three examples were gobbled up by lucky collectors. As of writing, there are five still waiting to find a new home. As it turns out, there aren’t a lot of people willing to tempt fate for $226,900. If you do have that kind of cash floating around your bank account, you can start your journey by contacting the Lazareth team at their website. I don’t, so I will just watch from afar and dream of taking just a single ride.

(Images: Lazareth Motors)