Remember the Dodge Tomahawk motorcycle concept? The one that had the Viper V10 engine in it and looked like a Tron Lightcycle? Well, I found something everyone here would love to know about that very motorcycle.

It is in fact based on a Tron Lightcycle! Here's a small segment from an October 20th 2003 article called "Chrysler's cruise missile" from the site designnews.com.

Indeed, the company's willingness to let creative minds run free is the very essence of the Tomahawk.

The idea originated with two DaimlerChrysler employees who also happened to be motorcycle enthusiasts. "They had this idea to build a Viper-powered bike," Walters recalls. "They wanted to take the V-10 Viper engine and put it in an existing motorcycle chassis, but never found the time to do it because they both have families."

The two employees—clay modeler, Bob Schroeder, and vehicle build specialist, Dave Chyz—ultimately brought their idea to Freeman Thomas, DaimlerChrysler's vice president in charge of advanced studios, who in turn took it to Walters. In discussing the idea with Walters, Thomas mentioned he had a vision for the bike inspired by the 1982 film, Tron, in which actor Jeff Bridges, trapped in a video game, rides a virtual, four-wheeled motorcycle.

Walters took the Tron concept, worked with it for a few weeks, and then pitched it to Chrysler Group Chief Operating Officer, Wolfgang Bernhard, and CEO, Dieter Zetsche. Using giant panels measuring 20-ft long and 6-ft high, Walters showed the executives the concept for the bike and the corporate marketing advantages. He explained that the Tomahawk would give DaimlerChrysler access to truck events, where truck buyers (many of whom are motorcycle enthusiasts) would line up in droves to see the 250-mph vehicle.

"Basically, we saw it as a way to crash a party," Walters recalls. "At the same time, we were hoping we could expose some of those consumers to the products that we make."

Zetsche and Bernhard quickly saw the merit in the concept. "They loved it," Walters recalls. "Much to our surprise, they told us to build it."

Just thought everyone would like to know this.

I'll second that. Was Freeman Thomas privy to a version of TRON that the rest of us didn't see? I've seen much of the pre-production art work for the light cycles too and I don't think I've ever seen a version with 4 wheels.

A idea that I think would have been cool to copy is the idea of an enclosed motorcycle. I'm not much of a motor cyclist but I'm guessing that's not much of a practical idea or someone would have made one by now I think.

An idea I'm toying with for my POV-Ray light cycle is making a sidecar for it. I think that would look cool and it'd get us up to three wheels.

Anyways... to get this back on topic does anyone know if the Tomahawk is going to see any limited production. I know it was being talked about at one point. I'm sure Jay Leno would want one. If I were Dodge I almost think I'd classify the idea of producing this thing as a law suit waiting to happen. Does anyone know if they've even really tested it. The fastest I've ever seen this thing move under its own power in any video I've see is about 3 mph. All I've ever seen in terms of performance is estimates. The above link states:

0-60 mph: 2.5 seconds (est.)
Top Speed: 300+ mph (est.)

From what I've seen the 0-60 mph part looks to be taking over a year and would anyone be crazy enough to try this thing at 300+ mph? And if Dodge could find someone would they let them try?

Darksaber7 Wrote:As far as finding someone crazy enough to get it up to 300 mph, they had a hard time finding someone crazy enough to ride it!

Are you saying they did find someone? Is there any video of this thing out there doing better then 3mph? I'd love to see it.

Darksaber7 Wrote:There have been some concept enclosed motorcycles. I know I've seen them in Motor Cyclist mag. I don't think there is a big enough demand for them to justify too much R&D.

Cool!!! About the closest I've seen are some enclosed bicycles that I think were testing the limits of human powered or maybe solar powered vehicles. If you have any of those Motor Cyclist mags handy and a scanner I'd love to see them. Let me know and I can send you my email address.

Thanks for the info,
Carl

The ECOMOBILE is very similar to most of the enclosed bikes I have seen, although some had open sides.

As far as the Tomahawk, here's some info.,

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/images/tomahawk/index.html


My kids have trashed all my back issues, but I seem to remember that their "test drive" consisted of little more than manuvering it around the parking lot. I don't think they were able to open the throttel more than a little (I'm thinking in the 30mph range, but I can't be sure...).

Just bumping this thread since Dave posted the Tomohawk video. The Tomahawk motorcycle was infact inspired by the Lightcycles from Tron. Read the above article to see.