Larareth Wazuma VF8 is a Ferrari-powered quad bike

When building a fast vehicle, achieving a favourable power to weight ratio is key. If you put a fairly powerful engine inside a relatively light chassis, you're guaranteed terrifying performance -- and that's exactly what French tuner Lazareth has attempted with the Wazuma VF8.

This, says Autoblog, is a quad bike that's powered by a Ferrari engine. Let that sink in for a second. Swill it around your brain and let the cocktail of excitement and pant-soiling horror brew a while. When you're done, you may pick your jaw up off the floor and read on.

The engine, a 3-litre V8, was likely extracted from a Ferrari Dino or 308. According to Lazareth, it produces 250 horsepower, all of which is channelled through a sequential gearbox sourced from a BMW M3. Lazareth won't tell us how fast it is (we suspect nobody's been stupid enough try a full throttle run) but the entire contraption weighs just 650kg, giving it a power to weight ratio of almost 384hp per tonne, so it's no slouch.

The whole thing runs on slick racing tyres, rides on 18-inch Momo rims and is hauled to a no doubt brisk standstill thanks to huge 324mm ventilated brake discs and Brembo calipers.

If you want a Wazuma VF8 for yourself, be prepared to fork over quite a bit of money -- about as much as you would for a proper Ferrari, in fact. Lazareth is selling the thing for €200,000 (£166,600) and, seeing as it's not road legal, you'll need to hand over yet more money for a second vehicle to transport it to and from a race track. 

Unsurprisingly, this isn't the first high-performance trike Lazareth has created. The company has previously built BMW V12-powered version of the Wazuma that packed a whopping 500hp.

Let us know if you'd be brave enough to ride either of these things on our Facebook wall.