Agreed.

That H-D collaborated with Porsche is a big Plus! What? They should collaborate with Yugo? Like any internal combustion engine, you can fiddle with it to get the sound you want. Salesman at a Madison dealer rides a Muscle, did the V&H 2 in 1 thing and it is guttural. The V-Rod is Harley D, probably the best bike the MoCo builds. I test drove one, nice ride. Love the looks of the Night-Rod with the upswept pipes. Still on my first bike, a Sportie SuperLow. It's between the Night Rod, the Softail Breakout, and maybe the Dyna Switchback for my upgrade. Got to have bags and a windshield. I DO like a little something different at Bike Night. Nobody will ask about your Street Glide.

And what 52Isn'tBigEnough said. He knows the bike.

 

Actually, it is new bike sales - for the MoCo and dealers. From early last year, but it still applies: http://cyrilhuzeblog.com/2013/04/25/...sus-last-year/

 

The last real Porsche with a soul was rolled off the line in Stuttgart in 1998.

 

The V-ROD it's a PORSCHE machine!!

End of discussion.

http://www.porscheengineering.com/pe...arleydavidson/

http://www.porscheengineering.com/fi...letype=default

 

No it is not. Porsche was involved as they were with HD in the late 70's with a previous water cooled engine that almost came to production. It was the Nova project and had water cooled two cylinder 500cc, 1,000cc V four and 1,500 V 6 motors. When the HD staff bought out AMF they did not have enough money to develop the Nova project and the Evolution project together. They decided to develop the Evo line.

Porsche has a facility that makes one off parts for prototypes. HD engineers and Willie G designed the engine and bike. HD does not and would not give control to any outside source. HD does not have a facility to produce one off prototypes. That is what Porsche did for them.

The Revolution engine was a advancement of an earlier racing motor that HD designed not anything to do with Porsche. The entire Vrod project was Willie G's baby.

Porsche built the engines to HD's specs. HD tested the prototypes in Florida. They had them to 180 mph but the engine lasted only 500 miles. They ran and ran the prototypes for up to 180,000 miles and harder than any rider would likely do until they knew. They ran them in an insulated building in the Florida sun shining thru the front of the building for 18 hours without failure of the cooling system. The head engineer of the project was Mr Gutteridge who just retired from HD. I meet him at a HD dealership and had a long conversation with him about the Vrod and some other projects done at the Arizona proving grounds that HD leased for a time.

 

In the words of Willie G. Davidson at Daytona Bike Week this year, "It's Harley on the outside, and a Porsche on the inside"


Being a former Porsche Tech and Crew Chief of a Porsche GT2 Team. When I opened up the inside of my V-Rod for the first time to perform several maintenance and performance upgrades, it definitely has Porsche's hand prints all over mechanical internals and design, coupled with GM's powertrain managment system.

 

All I got to say is it's a damn shame Willie G and/or HD can't seem to figure out what a great bike could be made with that engine in a more traditional frame and not try to make it such a drag bike with the rake stretched out so far.

 

I'm on my second V Rod (a muscle).
I am a retired Powertrain engineer. (HD "rented"SPACE at the DPG. A building and access to the road system. I've had many conversations with the HD guys testing the new engines.

All that said, I also was friends with the "GM(Delphi) project manager at the time Harley developed both fuel injected (Delphi) engines as well as the V Rod.

The initial Delphi software was nearly identical to what I used for Production CARS...

The V Rod development also took place in Europe, as Harley wanted the engine to "look like" the VR1000 race bike, I "race bike" I might add that more often than not FAILED during the race!!
The "design" criteria /60 degree, DOHC, V twin, liquid cooled, is shared with the VR1000,,,Porsche made the engine that would last and could be manufactured, without LOOSING it's oil! (The early "VR" based V Rod engines had OILING problems.)
There is also a reason the V Rod's had Mahle (Ger.) pistons as well as many other GERMAN engine parts!!
Porsche made it work!!

V Rods are proven to be very reliable engines!

 

Just bought my first HD street rod two in to one supper trap exhaust,lot of old school HD boys say it sounds great,so just be happy you can ride full stop.

 

Gravedigger