Haha. April Fool! We got you!
DISCLAIMER: Don’t die of a heart attack, or throw tomatoes at us. We did ride it. Just a tad smaller ‘replica’ of it! Nevertheless, FUN!
We motorcyclists generally don’t care much for four-wheelers. But at times we make an exception, especially when the four-wheeler is actually a bike! Well not quite, but the Dodge Tomahawk was surely never built to ‘fit in’ with the crowd!
In the early 2000s, the big American automobile manufacturers were slugging it out over horsepower. Who could build the biggest baddest machine. Amid the cacophony of V8s, 10s and even 16s, Chrysler took a different approach to wow the audiences. The Tomahawk wasn’t meant to be a fast powerful practical motorcycle which you could use; it was to be a collector’s item. A work of art which you would want to have parked in your garage.
At the heart of the motorcycle engine lays its heart! An 8.3 litre V10 SRT10 engine from the iconic Dodge Viper belting out 500 hp. The idea of plonking a super powerful car engine into the chassis of a motorcycle possibly stemmed from the Boss Hoss. The choice of four wheels for the Tomahawk came from the very first stage of designing. It was agreed by the design team that such a large engine would stick out crazily with just one skinny tyre at the front. So two wheels were employed at the front and for to allow the vehicle to be counter-steered like a regular motorcycle, each wheel was given an independent suspension.
True to its purpose, the Tomahawk took the automobile world by storm. There were people who loved it and those who hated it, but there was nary a soul who could ignore it! The lovers considered it a revolutionary take on the motorcycle, which hasn’t changed much in basic structure in the last century. The haters pointed out that it was a botched attempt at building a motorcycle by car designers, who didn’t understand the fundamentals of motorcycle design. Either way it was a handful of people who got a chance to ride this machine.
So when we got a chance to ride a working replica, we couldn’t stop grinning like idiots! What we rode though was similar only in looks, what with its 150cc petrol engine putting out a whopping 8 bhp. But it was nonetheless fun in the parking lot! And we did manage to garner the attention of old and young alike. Almost everyone who saw it stopped to click pictures and ask about the little replica. One can only imagine the kind of attention the real deal would garner.
Unsurprisingly this replica is produced in China, the country’s fascination for copying doesn’t cease.
Other than the looks, the only other similarity between the two is that neither are street legal!
How about this with the Ninja H2!
And here is the real one!
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Tomahawk
