Confederate Hellcat Speedster X132

2,163cc | 56 degree V-twin | 121bhp | Review | Specs

This is the 2014 Hellcat Speedster and it will set you back £39,000 ($65,000), it's hand built in Birmingham, Alabama, and it's the third generation of this mucho-macho piece of big-balls butch hardware. Also, after 65 bikes have been manufactured, the manufacturer is stopping production of this model. Forever. So these motorcycles won't be quite as rare as the Mona Lisa, but don't expect to find them in ASDA (read: K-Mart in the USA).

And hey, don't even think of buying one of these unless you eat coach bolts for breakfast and have tattoos on your eyeballs.

So okay, we don't really care too much about all that macho stuff. But ya gotta ham it up a little or people will think you're boring. And when it comes to new age CAD specials for the deeper pocketed man (or woman), this ain't as bad as some we've seen.

Specifications

The engine is a thumping great air-cooled 2,163cc 56-degree V-twin. Confederate tells us it's good for 121bhp and 140ftlb of torque. The bore and stroke, we're told, are both 4.4 inches—which, by our dodgy calculations, is around 111mm by 111mm. Except that the calculation doesn't make sense and suggests a cubic capacity of 2191cc. So punch your own calculator buttons if you're so smart.

At a little under 500lbs (227kg), the power-to-weight ratio of this motorcycle isn't exactly going to embarrass anyone. The transmission is 5-speed, final drive is chain, the front fork is WP, wheels are 18-inch BlackStone Tek carbon fibre, and a trio of Beringer brakes will kill the forward moment before it kills you.

That's the plan, anyway.

▲ The 2014 Hellcat Speedster X132. It's got more than a touch of Vincent Black Shadow, but it's no gentleman's roadster. This, instead, is a custom cruiser designed to make some kind of statement rather than lay down the miles. It looks likes a lot of confused design elements are in there fighting for attention. But if you've got one of everything else, you might as well have one of these too.

▲ The 2005 Confederate F113 Hellcat. Features include a 124 cubic inch (around 2030cc) S&S V-twin engine, Lightcon wheels, a 50mm Marzocchi inverted front fork and a swinging arm that doubles as the exhaust (via a flexi-pipe). The production target was 150 bikes, but we don't know if Confederate achieved that. Note the massive outrigger bearing housing switching the right side primary to left side final drive.

The rest of the bike is aluminium alloy, carbon fibre, and the other usual quality materials lavished on high-end motorcycles. Fuel capacity is around 3-gallons (13.5 litres).

Confederate Motorcycles was launched in 1991. The company has been hit by everything from technical woes to cash flow issues to hurricanes to bankruptcy. Production has shifted from the original site at New Orleans, Louisiana to where it is now, an 8,500 square foot site at 2222 Fifth Avenue South.

The firm's corporate slogan is: The Art of Rebellion. Among its customers (or users) are Bruce Springsteen, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Take note that there's a lot of very confusing information circulating regarding Confederate motorcycles, and the firm's website (at the time of writing) is generally pretty hopeless and fails to illuminate us beyond the very basic. So as much as we hate to admit it, treat all the tech numbers and dimensions with suspicion. Naturally, we like to get it right all the time, and we've done our best to double-check, but the company isn't helping much.

www.confederate.com

— The Third Man