What do a classic Volkswagen Rabbit Cabby Pickup, a Suzuki Hayabusa motorbike, a C10 pickup truck, an MG Midget, a BMW, a Ford Ranger, CityEl, and a Dodge Viper have in frequent? Not an entire lot. But. Rich Rebuilds, a automobile rebuilder on YouTube, thinks the automobiles can come collectively in a hodgepodge of components to create one nice one.

In late 2023, Rich Rebuilds took to YouTube to do the unthinkable: put a Hayabusa engine in a VW Rabbit Pickup. Along the way in which, he swapped out the cabby truck’s rear finish with 1996 Ford Ranger components, put in Dodge-branded seats, added a C10 Chevy radiator, traded the outdated steering wheel for one from a CityEl, and threw in a BMW 5 Series coolant system. The consequence? A hybrid pickup truck with an entire lot of character and a facet of torque. Here is how Rich Rebuilds did it.

In order to provide the latest and correct data potential, the info used to compile this text was sourced from varied producer web sites and different authoritative sources, together with Rich Rebuilds (YouTube), Suzuki, and Volkswagen.

A World’s First: How The Turbo Pickup Is Created

If there’s one factor Rich Rebuilds needs viewers to remove from the rebuild is that it takes time. Rebuilding automobiles is not the dash that automobile reveals faux it’s. Rather, it’s a prolonged marathon with a number of journeys, skinned knees, and water breaks alongside the way in which.

“Good things take time,” Rich Rebuilds insists. Some rebuilds have been within the works for 10-plus years, so a handful of months in video importing instances is not outrageous within the grand scheme of issues. In an age of 30-second TikTookay clips and Instagram reels, typically the most effective issues in life are proven intimately, the YouTuber stated.

How The VW Turned Hybrid

First, issues appeared to be going easily for the rebuilding crew. The preliminary rebuild concerned plenty of plasma chopping, another and faster option to slice by way of steel that saved the staff roughly 4 hours of hand-sawing. But fairly a little bit of the automobile was outfitted with hand-altered components.

In order to connect the engine to the truck body, 4 factors of contact needed to be shaped all whereas hand-heating a dry shaft adapter after taking off the rear sprocket. The staff then tackled the largest concern: ensuring the facility may successfully and effectively join from the motor to the rear axle.

Learning Along The Way

The automobile appeared slightly completely different all through a number of rebuild levels. In the method of trial and error, the Volkswagen proved to be tougher to tweak than initially anticipated. From the Bondo restore resolution drying too shortly to the engine refusing to show over, at instances the automobile appeared extra like a science venture than one thing that would truly hit the highway.

But, these hiccups have been cured because the staff labored. The outdated Saab turbo wheels that got here with the Volkswagen Rabbit Cabby Pickup Truck have been custom-cut three-spoke tires. But, these eight-inch vast tires weren’t initially what Rich Rebuilds had in thoughts. The staff additionally needed to contemplate that the Ford Ranger rear finish meant the automobile now had 5 lugs whereas the bespoke three-spokes had 4.

After switching the tires out for 10-inch stretch wheels that gave the truck a large berth and utilizing wheel adapters to repair the lug concern, the staff swapped again to the Saab wheels for each aesthetic and efficiency causes. The wheels, with a bigger diameter in comparison with the stretch wheels measuring 15 inches in diameter, allowed the truck to succeed in larger high speeds. The automobile additionally had different upgrades. From new air shocks to a swapped-out “Swiss cheese-like” rear bumper in trade for a easy roll pan, the rebuild went from a $300 rear finish to simply $2,000 in upgrades.

How It Compares To The Stock VW Rabbit And Suzuki Hayabusa

While it isn’t fully truthful to stack up the Volkswagen Hybrid towards right this moment’s rising market of hybrid vans, it’s intriguing to pit a Volkswagen Rabbit Cabby Pickup Truck towards a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle in technical specs.

Minimal Power vs. A Wild Engine

The Volkswagen Rabbit Cabby Pickup Truck solely has round 78 ponies and 88.2 pound-feet of torque. However, the newer variations (2007) scaled up that energy to 150 horsepower and a high velocity of 130 MPH, in accordance with Road and Track. It’s no shock then that the motorbike’s engine paired with an electrical motor created a wild journey.

While the VW Rabbit Pickup has minimal energy, in accordance with a Volkswagen dealer, it does have 4 inline cylinders identical to the Suzuki. The Volkswagen Pickup Truck additionally has a water-cooled system that additionally comes with a thermostatically-controlled electrical radiator fan and a cross-flow radiator that’s each closed and pressurized.

The Rich Rebuilds staff tried to amp up the cooling system and used a Chevy C10 radiator balanced within the rear of the truck to assist stop the Suzuki Hayabusa engine and the electrical motor from overheating. The pickup truck additionally options an inner temperature sensor within the radiator.

Technical Specs

(Data sourced from Suzuki and Volkswagen)

This Hybrid Volkswagen Rabbit Is A Torque Fest

While different automobiles disguise the great things below the hood, the rebuild’s high function was its transparency. A fast look within the mattress of the truck provides an eye-full. Rich Rebuilds stated he preferred the look of it, together with the enormous radiator tilted within the rear. However, the open-plan structure additionally has sensible advantages: all the pieces is simple to succeed in. When the automobile would not flip over at first, the problem — the facility committer refused to remain on — was easy to identify.

Speedy and Powerful

It’s spectacular that the Suzuki Hayabusa’s 1,340 cubic-capacity engine did not “blow these tires off” as anticipated (that is extra energy than some MotoGP groups are allowed to play with). However, the automobile was filled with torque. While a contemporary Suzuki Hayabusa does not attain too far above 100 pound-feet in torque, it is fairly a bit greater than the Rabbit’s 88.2 pound-feet of torque.

Even earlier than the Hayabusa engine was hooked up, the automobile’s torque shocked the staff. As they stated, it has “more than enough torque to go anywhere” and was “as fast as a diesel was.” The automobile appeared fairly fast, even with a half-changed battery connected.

According to Suzuki, the Hayabusa’s “torque-rich 1,340 cc engine effortlessly delivers a strong wave of power so the Hayabusa accelerates quicker and smoother than ever before.” With a Hayabusa engine, named after a chook that exceeds 200 MPH in flight and deemed the quickest chook species to exist, it comes as no shock that the regular purr of the hybrid rebuild would end in a fast-paced automobile.

The Turbo Hybrid Truck’s Special Features

Besides being a novel one-of-a-kind powerhouse, the VW pickup truck has a couple of tips up its sleeve that push it over the sting. A couple of items are, in truth, utterly distinctive. The staff introduced the 3D printer out to finish the job in an odd combine of contemporary, electrical, classic, and gas-guzzling. The automobile includes a thumb throttle faraway from the cyber quad and mounted on the steering wheel to manage the electrical motor and provides the entrance motor additional enhance — like a Mario Kart turbo enhance.

The automobile additionally features a Pingel auto-shifter that typically is attached to a Hayabusa’s handlebars however permits for management over the paddle shifters within the VW with the additional benefit of an electrical shift adapter. Rich Rebuilds, dwelling as much as his identify, rebuilt the rear differential by gutting the gears and including new seals and bearings.

The truck additionally options an air inlet to chill the rear engine down together with a seize deal with in case issues go sideways and, ultimately, the automobile may have a voltage monitor to gauge the 72-volt battery with a change to activate the EV portion. In the longer term, the staff stated a second worth for air shocks would have made the automobile higher. “This thing’s an adventure,” Rich Rebuilds stated when test-driving it. “So much is going on, you don’t know what to do.”