[BraveMan]

TOMAHAWK SPEC
Overall Length: 102 inches

Overall Width: 27.7 inches

Overall Height: 36.9 inches

Wheelbase: 76 inches

Curb weight: 1,500 lbs

Ground clearance: 3 inches

Fuel tank capacity: 3.25 gallons

Engine: 10-cylinder 90° V-type

Displacement: 8.3 liters (505 inch3)

Valve system: 2 pushrod-actuated overhead valves per cylinder

Power: 500 bhp @ 5,600 rpm

Torque: 525 lb-ft @ 4,200 rpm

Cooling system: Twin aluminum radiators mounted atop engine intake manifolds

At 8.3 liters, the Viper engine was about five times the size
of a big motorcycle engine, leaving Tomahawk designers with
a huge packaging dilemma.

Handwork: In many cases, engineers say they had to do the machining
of aluminum transmission parts -- held to tolerances of 0.001 inch -- by
hand because of the complex curves and valleys involved.

[BraveMan]

Too much is never enough ping . . .

[Fierce Allegiance]

[camle]

uh lemme see, a half million bucks for one, but it isn't operational and meant for display purposes only. Do they really think that anyone smart enough to have a half mill to blow would spend it on this?

[Aquinasfan]

Next year they'll strap on a rocket engine. Kind of reminds me of how Gillette spent "ten years of research" to discover the triple-blade razor. It may take another ten years of research to discover the quadruple-blade razor.

[Agnes Heep]

Can't wait to hit the overpass.

[uglybiker]

Designers of the vehicle say they really don't know how fast the resulting vehicle is.

Can you say: "Bonneville"?

Sure. I knew you could.

[martin_fierro]

	FReeper Motorcycle Hooligan
FR motorcycle-related posts
Send FReepmail if you want on/off FMH list

[pabianice]

"Notice of Cancellation of Health and Liability Insurance"...

[R. Scott]

8.3 liters, the V-10 Viper engine?
Sure glad this didn't come out a dozen years ago, or I would have been tempted to rob a few banks to buy one.

[taxed2death]

$500,000 is actually cheap. Todays GP-1 bikes can be "rented" from their Japanese manufactures for between 2 million to 3 million dollars a year.

Last year Colin Edwards smashed his brand new Honda RC-51 superbike while testing it. Not unusual, except the bike was worth 2 million and he rode it for a total of 1/2 a lap.

When his crew chief came by in the truck to put the bike on the back, Colin was reported to tell him "don't bother to bring the truck....bring a shovel and a broom intstead".

Ouch.

[r9etb]

Way cool design/engineering problem.

To me, the most impressive part wast this:

He took the drawings to his workstation, "surfaced" the case, then provided a data CD to a vendor that milled the transmission case from a 10,000-lb, solid aluminum billet.

"Even though we were working in tolerances of a thousandth of an inch, the transmission worked right out of the box," Walters says.

A perfect marriage of brute force and precision -- LOL!!!!

[Constitution Day]

COOL!

I have this issue of Design News... thanks for posting this.

[Landru]

*Perfect*

I say to the idiots running (or is it ruining) Chrysler, "Go for it!"

First these imbuciles went to work at their billion dollar R&D center in Canada & engineered a V10.
Then collared Carol Shelby -- no less -- to design 'em a true "sports car" in the same vein as Carol's AC Cobra, 25 years before.
So far, so *good*.

Next thing ya know?
The public's seeing that same Copperhead V10 showing up as an option in Dodge pickup trucks.
>doink<

Then Chrysler designers come up with the *retro* "PT Cruiser" & people are standing in lines waiting to scoff the thing up.
Those people would've told ya "It has great styling! while the lamestream mediots are giving it all the positive press any American automobile manufacturer could ever possibly ask; thereby, fanning the flames of a hungry motoring public.
What could be better, eh?

So what's the engine Chrysler used to *power* this fabulous testament in styling?
The only engine available is the same old & very *tired* Mitsubishi V6 one found in virtually every other Chrysler product made since the early 90s.
Yawwnnn.

Yup, bought my bride a snazzy red LaBaron convertable with one of those V6 engines in it, &, the torque curve was a classic *flat liner*. "DOA."
We affectionately nicknamed the thing "The Beached Whale" after the groan it'd make when ya mashed the accelerator.
~Yea...whadda car.

Of course then there was *the* incredible, fabulous Prowler!! (Grrrrrr!)
All the *Prowler* V6s that'd been built for that Edsel-like abomination must've wound up going into the PT Cruisers *after* the *braintrust* at Chrysler managed to run Plymouth into the ground & outa business.
So much for what used to be one of the greatest automobile monikers Detroit ever had & why "Penny-wise & Dollar Foolish" was coined.

But wait, the Chrysler bozos weren't done!
Not finished "reading the record"!
It gets even *better*!

First let us return to Chrysler's billion dollar R&D center where after what, 30 years, Chrysler's engineering brainiacs are *reinventing* Chrysler's infamous hemispherical head iron pushrod V8.
Only *this* time the magnificent heads will be worn not on a 392 or monster 426cu/in block, no-no-no!
This iteration of the famous "Hemi" will be a totally new, state-of-the-art 5.7L V8 engine (~350c/in dis +/- an cu/in).
This motor is being marketed as the Second Coming & currently available in yup -- you guessed it -- a Dodge pickup truck.
Sometime next year's the very soonest it'll be available, as an option, in one of Chrysler's passenger cars.
>doink<

Chrysler's so woefully mismanaged as to be hysterically laughable; so, I say bring that *thing* on!
At a paltry half mil I'm sure most of 'em will be sold to the posters right here at FR.
While the moron-huns who're running Chrysler will finally do to Chrysler what Lynn Townsend couldn't with his infamous *Aspen*.
Ruin it. :o)

While across town things aren't much better.
Ford's all set & chaffin' at the bit to launch their new GT40, soon.
Yup, at a time when the automobile market's in a depressed & bloated condition due to 0% et al.
But in all fairness it must be noted, Ford must keep their factories running & the UAW guys at work per the contracts they signed, even if Ford's only planning to build around 1,500 GT40s, at the most!!
Some *savior*, huh.

The new GT40 will still, after all, be a *Ford*; but, *this* Ford's going cost the perspective buyer anywhere between $120 & $150,000!!
Gosh things must be awfully good in Grosse Point! :o)

Naturally while this malarkey's going on at Ford?
In 2005 Ford's, unfortunately, discontinuing what should've *&* could've been Ford's crown jewel.
A car that was extremely affordable & a true "sports car" going head-to-head with Chevrolet's Corvette.
The Ford "Thunderbird."

The car's being scrapped because -- known to all *but* those at Ford World HQ -- the thing could *not* be had with Ford's premium performance V8, the supercharged SVT twin cam 32 valve modular racing engine.
Nope, couldn't get it in a Thunderbird; buuuuut, you *could* get it in the aging Mustang!!
BTW, that's all ya can get that motor in.
>doink<

Guess Ford's *strategy* is to put all their eggs into the mega-buck GT40 during a depressed economy, or, Ford -- apparently -- knows something we don't, huh?

So Braveman, tell me.

...you gonna be signing up for one? {g}

[uglybiker]

You can always go the retro route;-)

Don't remember all the details on this one 'cept is was built from vintage AF/X parts (then came a couple blowers and things started to get a bit strange).

At least this way when someone asks in that crackly, whiny voice: "Is it got a hemi in it?"

You can say: "Hell yeah!"

[sheik yerbouty]

For street use it needs "training wheels" at stoplights.