With many cars destined for the junkyard at the end of their lives, there’s often a plethora of parts lying around for other purposes. The great minds at the Garage 54 YouTube channel are experts in recycling, taking anything sitting around the shop to build some truly unique machines that defy logic and, sometimes, physic. Its latest creation is a Lada-powered supertrike rat rod that looks perfectly dystopian.
Powering the lengthy trike is an 80-horsepower (56-kilowatt) Lada engine. It sits in front of the single-chair driver’s seat, but the trike is capable of carrying two additional passengers with the second row of plush brown seats. The trike struggles to stay running, a known problem with carbureted Lada engines that isn’t prevalent in fuel-injected engines, but it has no troubles once it’s up to running temperatures.
The trike is surprisingly complaint, especially in a straight line. It absorbs road imperfections so easily that it goes off-road with little trouble. However, its size, measuring 3 meters and 20 centimeters from the front wheel to the rear seat, makes the trike difficult to navigate over uneven terrain. It gets stuck on one hill and loses a weakly welded muffler, but it doesn’t stop the trike from freeing itself and continuing on.
The trike looks like the poster child for rat rods. The exposed chassis and mechanicals, along with the welder’s helmet serving as the headlight, complete its wild aesthetic. It’s always surprising how well many of Garage 54’s builds run well, and the trike joins that growing list of creations we’d like to see again in the future, which is possible. The channel is open to suggestions about what to do with the build.
It seems as if little goes to waste in Garage 54’s shop, with the YouTube channel building some truly wild cars and creations, like making a half-gas, half-diesel engine. However, that’s far from the strangest build from the team. One car had its suspension replaced with office chair struts, while another build featured an installed, roof-sized air brake on a Lada. We can’t wait to see what the channel thinks up next.
