Lazareth launches a motorbike to new heights
Wow, Wow, just bloody Wow. A motorbike that can fly is every schoolboy’s dream; Super Hero’s fighting with bad guys, slaying their arch-enemies in a galactic battle. Yet, fantasy has morphed into reality in a spectacular way. This is no "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", more so a cross between Batman and Judge Dredd for the discerning gentleman.
Ludovic Lazareth is a French custom auto maker with a long history of creating wacky and bizarre concept ideas, but his Moto Volante flying motorcycle has got to be his most ambitious and inspiring project so far. Truly a modern-day orchestrator of fine works of art with style and vision, he is fearless to stretch the boundaries of imagination. Lazareth takes things further by visualising practical applications. His genius of staring into the future isn’t a comic book dream, but more so trailblazing technology in his concept world.
Based on the understatedly named LM 847, this mind-bogging motorcycle breathes a fiery 470bhp from a Maserati 4.7l V8 engine. The LMV 496 Moto Volante can also develop 1300bhp 96,000rpm through its jet turbines to levitate this quadcopter. Hydraulics tilt the four wheel horizontally, so the jet turbines, located in the hub of each wheel, can lift the beast from the ground.
According to Lazareth, you can ride it on the road as a conventional motorbike, but when you’ve had enough of the traffic pull over and launch the machine. A button activates the hydraulics to convert from a bike to flying mode, then after 60 seconds of pre-heating the jets, it’s ready to fly, leaving the gridlock behind. Maybe he’s never ridden a motorbike or weaved through the traffic?
The real technology is still a close guarded secret. As there are no chains visible from the Maserati power unit, it would be assumed that the bike on an electric drive to the rear wheels. Due to the significant weight of the engine possibly the engine has been changed from its LM 847 ancestor, we will have to continue to speculate. Either way, this is a truly inspired project.
The bike was tested by Lazareth’s girlfriend Vanessa on tethers to a height of one metre, demonstrating its agility. With pre-launch orders in the region of £500,000, if you want to be a true trailblazer, here’s something you can spend your lottery winnings on.
Source: Lazareth Auto Moto