What Happens When You Stuff Two Hayabusa Engines In A Fiat 500?

Stuffing a Suzuki Hayabusa engine into small, classic, European hatchbacks is a pretty common modification. What happens if you put two ‘Busa engines together to make a V8, though? If that sounds familiar, you may already be familiar with the last—and some say, best—creation made by Austrian racer Georg Pacher. He sadly died in 2014 after an illness, but his very last build was this double Hayabusa-engined Puch TR5. 

Some parts of it started life as a modern Fiat 500, before Pacher got his hands on it. Well known in the Austrian hillclimb scene, Pacher had been modifying Fiats for years before this final build. It’s said to make over 300 horsepower at 11,000 rpm. Among other extremely custom design elements, Pacher achieved significant weight savings by integrating a spaceframe into his plans.  

It’s low, it’s aggressive, it has a giant hillclimb wing, and of course it’s powered by that incredible Hayabusa-derived V8. Although Pacher is gone, his final creation still lives on, and you can find plenty of videos of this thing in action if you look. As you can see in this video, the current owner is more than happy to drive this car the way it demands to be driven.  

The first part shows a dyno run, to get you acquainted with the sheer power and truly awesome sound of the completed project. After that, you can see footage from the Austrian hillclimb round at St. Agatha Bergrennen in 2019. It’s hard to decide if it’s more fun to think about driving this thing, or hearing it roar past you!  

It’s always sad when a great talent is no longer with us. If you’re lucky, in some cases, you still get to appreciate the great creations they’ve left behind. Thankfully, Pacher wasn’t the type of guy to be content with just quietly building away in a shed somewhere and never showing his creations to the public. For that, we’re grateful.