Some days, the only remedy for my ennui has seemed to be the self-imperilment of a motorcycle. But a bike would only be a gateway drug to something like, say, a V10-powered quad with more than 1,000 horsepower. It looks like it could cure my discontentment forever—if not necessarily in a survivable way.
Such a vehicle is the work of a company called Engler, which claims to be the pioneer of a new type of machine: the “super quad.” It’s as if someone saw the Dodge Tomahawk and decided it was a good starting point, but that it needed more: More wheels, more power, and more capacity for self-endangerment. And then they looked at their resulting 1,100-hp, V10 creation and decided it still wasn’t extreme enough. [Editor’s note: The Tomahawk technically had four wheels—the pairs were just really close together!]
Engler started out making something called the Desat, its first super quad. It was powered by the 5.2-liter V10 out of a Lamborghini or an Audi R8—seemingly the latter, given its suspiciously R8-shaped headlights and taillights. Engler then amped it up to 1,100 hp, which in the barebones, 2,425-pound Desat was good enough to dispatch zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and charge on to 217 mph. All in a package smaller than a Honda Civic, and with only the handlebars and your thigh muscles to keep you in place. (I guess thick thighs really do save lives.)
Now, Engler is upping the ante by the margin of a Harley Davidson—two cylinders and a negligible amount of power. That’s right, the Engler V12 graduates to the engine of its namesake, which is promised to generate up to 1,200 hp and 885 lb-ft of torque. It’s said to use an ultra-light eight-speed dual-clutch automatic weighing less than 66 lbs, which Engler claims is the lightest transmission ever fitted to a road car. How it holds up to the power of that V12, I can’t even begin to imagine. It’s not like the V12 model is any lighter than the V10 Desat, after all.
Though it may have a carbon fiber monocoque, 3D-printed titanium accessories, and lightweight chromoly-titanium tubular subframes, the Engler V12 still weighs in at 2,645 lbs. Don’t get me wrong, that’s nothing at all for the amount of power on tap. We’d go wild for a quarter of that in a Toyota GR86. I’m just surprised it’s not lighter.
Still, because it has four wheels and not two, it combines many of the best attributes of a supercar and a bike. It probably handles like an oversized BAC Mono with its forged aluminum and titanium double-wishbone suspension, electronic damping, and forged 20-inch magnesium wheels wearing Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber. Paired with Brembo brakes (six-piston calipers up front, four-pistons out back), it should combine all the stability, stopping power, and agility of a supercar with the open-air experience of a motorcycle.
At the same time, the Engler’s more rounded performance envelope means it’s more dangerous than a bike in some ways. If you thought high-siding a bike was bad enough, imagine doing that at the cornering speeds a four-wheeled vehicle on Cup 2s is capable of. Probably won’t end well. Plus, before doing so, you’ll look like the deeply unfashionable cross between a Lamborghini Huracan driver and an ATV rider at a street takeover. Then again, none of us look elegant when we’re getting our fix. The only difference is that it’s a crime to do it while poor, and if you can afford a 1,200-hp quad, you sure ain’t.
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