will recall the epic moment when Batman breaks free of a shuddering Batmobile, emerging into the night on a huge, intimidating motorcycle. Hunched over the front wheel of this agile vehicle, our hero speeds through the streets of Gotham City in pursuit of the Joker.
once made something similar for our universe. Read on to learn about the closest we ever got to a real-life Batcycle—the Dodge Tomahawk.
The launch of the Dodge Tomahawk
Attendees of the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit were in for a treat.
Then-president and COO of Chrysler Wolfgang Bernhard, sporting a leather jacket, roared onto the stage on a giant silver and black motorcycle with four wheels. It was five years before Christopher Nolan took the helm of the Batman franchise, and it may as well have been pre-production Dark Knight product placement.
Former Chrysler spokesman Dominick Infante recalled, reports
, that the crowd watched nervously as Bernhard revved the 500 hp Viper engine to a breaking point. If he let the hand clutch go, he said, “it could basically just launch itself through the crowd.”
Luckily, nothing untoward occurred in Detroit, and the Tomahawk got some great exposure.
The crowd in Detroit was right to be nervous. The Tomahawk was built with unbelievable strength and, though it was never officially recorded, a theoretical top speed between 300 and 420 mph, according to
This 1,500 pound Frankenstein’s monster was powered by a V10 SRT10 Dodge Ram engine, which explains the 500 hp and the category confusion. And it was beautiful to behold—a grooved silver frame supported two sets of closely placed wheels, with space and then some for a rider to rocket past traffic in a shiny blur.
Whether or not you’d call it riding or driving the Tomahawk, you definitely wouldn’t be allowed to do it on the street. The nine units that Dodge made were never deemed street legal, nor were the nine replicas. People who bought them drove them at their own bodily and legal risk. Dodge called them “rolling sculptures,” a clever evasive tactic as well as a wink at their objet d’art.
. Chrysler was willing to make 100 production units if 20 people expressed genuine interest in purchasing a Tomahawk. Whether those 20 Evil Knievels ever stepped forward is not clear, but Chrysler eventually pulled the plug, citing potential safety issues.
The nine Neiman Marcus replicas sold for $555,000 each, and we haven’t seen any new Tomahawks since the early 2000s, real or imitation. If you’re dying for your own Tomahawk, you’ll have to be satisfied with a mini concept. Or just do a bit of tinkering with your Harley Davidson and see if you can give the Batcycle a run for its money.
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