Have you ever seen something that just defied explanation? Something that you just had to get proof of, otherwise no one would believe you? Sam Turner has created such a thing, and lucky for you, we’ve got proof.
What you see here is a hydrostatic twin turbo all-wheel-drive diesel motorcycle custom-built from the ground up. What it looks like is a cross between the Batpod in The Dark Knight and something out of Mad Max. But before we get into the specifics, let’s back up a little bit.
Sam works for the US Postal Service in Atlanta as a diesel engine tech maintaining their vehicles. He’s a diesel enthusiast through and through, and wanted to put his skills to use. To that end, he decided to modify an old bike with a diesel engine (which you can see in the video below). He says, “It was a Mary ‘plain’ Jane. It was a Suzuki GS750 frame that I put a single-cylinder Yanmar diesel on. I ended up putting a turbo and an intercooler on it. It was a very normal-looking motorcycle besides the diesel engine.”
After getting his feet wet with that bike, he decided to dig a little deeper and really make something special. “I went with a V-twin diesel and put twin turbochargers on it,” he says. “Then I was thinking it’d be awesome to have something kind of robust-looking that had all-wheel drive for a motorcycle, so that’s what led me down the hydrostatic route of making it hydraulically driven.”