Few vehicles generate as much awe and mystique as the car-engined motorcycle. Here are a few memorable examples.
Here it is, probably the most elementary principle in vehicle performance: To go fast, stuff the largest possible engine into the smallest and lightest package available. Take that theory to its ridiculous and impractical extreme and you have the auto-engined motorcycle. It’s a great idea, not a good idea.
The theory has never quite lived up to its alleged potential, for a host of reasons. And today the approach is essentially obsolete, since motorcycle engines can now produce more than ample power in a usable package. But the car/bike mashup has produced some memorable machines with yards of character over the years. Here are a few.
In the late ’60s, the Münch Mammoth from Germany was a near-mythical beast, known to American enthusiasts mainly through fuzzy ads in the back pages of motorcycle magazines. Powered by an NSU four-cylinder passenger-car engine of 1200cc, the Mammoth sported a gargantuan front drum brake and twin automobile headlamps. The price was massive, too: $4000, the cost of a new Buick at the time, and distributor Floyd Clymer trumpeted the bike as the biggest, fastest, and greatest on the market. Noted collectors of these rare machines today include Jay Leno.
In 1935, Fred Luther of Los Angleles found fame in the workbench magazines of the day with this two-wheeler, a stretched Henderson X motorcycle chassis carrying a 1934 Plymouth PF powerplant. Luther predicted 300 mph for his creation, but with 125 hp at best available from the flathead six, the claim seems absurdly optimistic. When the engine kicked a rod out of the block on an early test run, Luther called close enough and parked the machine permanently.
Norm Grabowski (1933-2012) was a colorful and influential California hot rodder who helped to popularize the T-bucket roadster, but he built some crazy, far-out bikes too, including this 1941 Indian 4 with a Corvair flat six wedged into the frame tubes. There was no transmission; the Corvair clutch coupled directly to the Indian shaft drive. Actually, Grabowski built two Corvair-powered motorcycles in the ’60s and ’70s, and at least one of them still exists, reportedly.
On January 6, 2003 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Chrysler COO Wolfgang Barnhard rode the Dodge Tomahawk concept onto the Cobo Center stage before the baffled international media. A V10 Viper engine with a pair of narrow-tracked wheels attached to each end, more or less, the Tomahawk was not exactly a motorcycle, not exactly a car, but it did achieve its goal of generating reams of publicity for the Dodge and Viper brands.
Probably the best-known car-engine bikes in America are the string of Chevy-powered machines built by the Michigan Madman, EJ Potter. The farmer-slash-exhibition racer thrilled and amazed audiences at drag strips from coast to coast with seven different bikes that bore the names Bloody Mary and Widow Maker (pictured here and in lead photo). You can read more about EJ’s bikes and career here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, and you can see him in action on video here.
While car/automobile hybrids might not be dynamically practical, one Tennessee company has made them commercially successful. Since 1990, Boss Hoss Cycles has been turning out a line of massive (1200 lbs.) cruisers powered by small and big-block Chevy V8s, in both two-wheel and three-wheel trike versions. More recently, the bike maker has switched over to the lighter, more compact Chevy LS series V8, producing a more manageable package. Prices currently start in the upper-40 Large range.
Had a now deceased friend restore a Münch Mammoth. Bike was insane to look at. Have seen EJ Potter once years ago before I knew who he was and before he died RIP 🙁 Then have a lot of SBC and a bunch of BBC Boss Hoss bikes around me all summer!
I’ve always been interested in these wild machines, but think they were pretty useless, as I’ve driven some conventional motorcycles that were a handful, the Kawasaki 3 cylinders and the Z-1, to name a few. One bike you didn’t mention, was Von Dutch’s VW powered bike, which some say, was the motivation behind the Honda GoldWing. I had a 1975 GoldWing, and put 100K miles on it. A V-8 on a motorcycle? Come on, just the old American saying, more must be better. Thanks, MCG. http://www.bikernet.com/docs/stories/10762/xavw15.jpg
Love the pipes on the Indian/Corvair!
Thank you for posting ,,, we think it we build it ,, oh yea,,,
As someone who loves riding more than almost anything else, I’m intensely curious about the people that buy things like the Boss Hoss. I especially love bikes that are fast, light, chuckable (if that’s even a word), bikes that become an extension of myself on a circuit.
But the BH has me baffled. I can think of no reason why anyone would want such a thing other than perhaps to say “Look at me and my enormous thing!” Do these people have some esteem or self-confidence issues? Are there similarities between these riders and the guys with those ridiculously enormous pickup trucks? The drivers of these that I’ve encountered certainly don’t seem to lack confidence, yet clearly something isn’t quite right.
Another thing – absurdly big vehicles are a uniquely American phenomenon. Why? I’m genuinely curious.
Hi grumbles, I believe you hit it right on the head.
“Another thing – absurdly big vehicles are a uniquely American phenomenon. Why? ”
Two reasons why:
1. the USA has larger spaces. Ok, maybe Australia has a little bit more open area per person but not the network of finished roads. Of course the worlds largest truck is in Saudi Arabia.
2. Why not?
Per the pickup trucks and other large vehicles – Bob Chandler’s Big Foot 4×4’s history is interesting to read about how it evolved from a standard pickup via upgrading parts until it established the monster truck pattern of today. The original Big Foot was nothing like the monster trucks of today.
And yes, it is a game of one-up-man-ship after a certain point.
I personally worked in a luxury sport fishing yacht company in which a 43′ ( 13meter) boat line had twin 6 cylinder diesel engines as stock motors, twin 8 cylinder diesel engines as the optional power upgrade. The 53′ (16meter) boat line had twin 8 cylinder diesel engines as stock power and twin 10 cylinder diesel engines as optional power upgrade. Soooo, eventually there was a customer with enough money who wanted and paid for getting the twin 10 cylinder desiel engines put into the 43′ boat to make it -f-a-s-t !!! Why? To be able to run out to fish and run back in from fishing faster than other yacht owners.
Seriously, I have spoken to one Boss Hoss owner and he said it was very good on the interstate plus engine parts are easier to source than typical motorcycle parts. I have thought that a V-6 version might be a good compromise of weight vs size.
The Boss Hoss and Gold Wing, et al are all made for eating miles on long interstates not for flicking into curves in the mountains like sport bikes nor jumping around taxi cabs in the cities like supermoto. I have driven an automobile on the interstate in Kansas in which I set the cruise control to 90 mph (that’s 145k/h in metric) only because that was the highest the cruise control would allow me to set it. And then left the cruise control engaged almost an hour. Space, its the space that allows this.
Conversely, I think nothing is sillier than seeing a Smart car commonly used in a rural area or driving on the interstate in a rural state. Other than the purchase cost, it loses its main design parameter when not used in a developed, urban area with difficult parking.
The LS range Chev engines are lighter but not any more compact. I too wonder WHY,, but hey I dont ride bikes so it does not effect me!
Several folks, including Duane Ausherman, have built VW-powered BMW motorcycles over the years:
http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/BMW-VW/
And the Amazonas VW 1600cc powered bike from Brazil was formerly considered a crazy size engine but now Goldwing sports a 1600 cc 6cylinder.
Also, don’t forget Roadog:
http://www.walneckswap.com/miscpage_001.asp
Left out was the TRUTH. Built by Norm Harrison and Bob Thurston. Rode by Bob Thurston at Lions in Long Beach, Ca. 1961-1962