This Ferrari V8-Powered Custom Motorbike Sounds Awesome
A project to mount a Ferrari V8 engine in a motorcycle is nearing completion, as Hazen Motorworks fires up the HF355 for the first time
Hazen Motorworks has been busy posting a flurry of clips to Instagram recently, as the Ferrari V8-powered HF355 finally wakes up.
I’ve been following this project for a while now, and the more I saw, the more impressed I was by the bike. For starters, mounting any car engine in a bike frame requires equal parts engineering expertise and lunacy, but the way Maxwell Hazen, the man behind the machine, has gone about the build if also seriously impressive.
In building the bike, Hazen had to throw the motorcycle maker's playbook out of the window, and once allowed to use the engine as a stressed member, its chassis is a case study in simplicity and function over form.
Mated to the engine is a custom underslung swingarm that wouldn’t look out of place on a WorldSBK grid, while the seat unit, which doubles as the fuel tank, is another example of simple design, done properly. To help get around the size of the engine, Hazen utilised a novel horizontally-mounted rear shock absorber from Ohlins, and to keep the circa 400bhp engine cool, the radiators have been mounted beneath the engine.
The final clip from Hazen shows the bike being put through its paces on a dyno, and while the final numbers produced by the Ferrari V8 are not disclosed, the sounds emitted from the SCProject stubby exhausts serve as all the confirmation you need that this thing is a serious motorcycle.
Find the latest motorcycle news on Visordown.com
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
