Soviet Ice Drifting: 30-Speed Lada With Two Gearboxes and a Honda Motorbike Engine

The reason why it is so jolly good outside, with snow and ice (pun intended, definitely!), is because drifting is so much more fun over solid water than on the tarmac. Given the reduced friction coefficient of ice, it is way easier to achieve, thus requiring less horsepower and torque to spin the wheels. But let’s not get into the technicalities of playing in the snow and let the professionals do the exemplifying.

Name a more winter-savvy country on good old Planet Piston than Russia. Yeah, didn’t think so, either. Siberia, in particular, is very knowledgeable when it comes to minus ‘pick a number’ temperatures. In the heart of Siberia, in the city of Novosibirsk, dwells a pack of wrenchers going by the stage name of Garage 54. They’re mostly famous for doing car stuff for the sheer fun of it, but from time to time, they come out with a gem like the one in this story.

The gang from the Wild East got possession of a motorcycle that left the scene of an accident on a trailer, removed its four-cylinder engine and accompanying six-speed gearbox, and transplanted it into a… that’s right, a Lada!

Well, technically, it’s called Zhiguli 1500, but it drives like a Lada, and drifts like a Lada. Therefore, it’s the perfect rear-wheel drive test mule. The drifting division of Garage 54 (yes, they have one sideways department) accomplished the modification of the Soviet sedan – play the second video for a detailed cinematic experience. (Please be advised that it’s in Russian, and there’s no dubbing available).

Alternatively, if you want the English version of the same story, play the first video – our regular host, Vlad Barashenko, explains the basics. A Honda CBR got into an accident and ended up in the caring hands of the Siberian piston hobbits, who quickly decided that the 1,130-CC engine was far more suitable for a special rear-wheel drive adventure: snow drifting.

The Russians got a Lada/Zhiguli 1500, stripped it down to the bone, removed its 1.5-liter inline-four engine and four-speed manual transmission, and put in the 164-PS, 124 Nm (162 hp, 92 lb-ft) inline-four with the six-speed gearbox.

So far, no good: there’s one problem that a car driver must address but a motorcyclist can easily walk out of (literally): backing up. The CBR doesn’t have a reverse gear –impractical and nonsensical. All the biker has to do is take a few steps back while sitting in the bike seat, and that’s it. But a car – even a drifting one – would appreciate that set of cogs that spin the other way around and make the vehicle move backward.

The boys from Garage 54 are not famous for nothing, so their solution is – as expected – radical: they retrofitted a five-speed gearbox from a Mitsubishi Pajero Mini between the motorcycle engine and the rear differential. This Japanese transmission has a 1:1 ratio in fourth gear, thus passing the motor output unaltered. And it also has a go-back gear, which perfectly suits the mechanics' needs.

A simple math-mechanical calculation will reveal that the vehicle now has a thirty-speed sequential transmission available: six in the main box and five in the makeshift ‘transfer case,’ which makes a total of 30 forward gears. Additionally, this car has five reverse ranges – that’s Garage 54 overkill at its finest.

The mechanics had to adapt the shift lever to operate in a passenger-car manner, employing a stick lever to mesh through the gears. As you may recall, a motorcycle gearbox is foot-operated. Before being put through its paces, the cylinder heads get rebuilt (one can never have such a thing as too much wheel-spinning power).

Additionally, after every bit of unnecessary dead weight has been scrapped – the glass, sound deadening, seals, and interior have all been thrown away, the car’s suspension and brakes are revised (read ‘fully rebuilt’). The double-wishbone front suspension's upper and lower control arms are upgraded, and new brake discs and calipers are put on. The windshield and windows are bolt-on sheets of transparent plastic, and a light-weight racing seat gives the driver a place behind the wheel.

Once all is cut and dry, the Honda-powered, Mitsubishi-driven Lada roars over the snow track (play the second video from 32:30). The project is still in a work-in-progress phase. Still, the car seems ready to put on its ice skates and blast over a twisty, icy circuit.