Dodge Tomahawk

The Dodge Tomahawk was a non-street legal vehicle introduced in 2004 by Dodge at the North American International Auto Show, as a one-off concept, and later that year, DaimlerChrysler announced they would sell hand-built reproductions on order. The Tomahawk attracted significant press and industry attention for its striking design, its outsize-displacement, 10-cylinder car engine, and its four close-coupled wheels, which give it a motorcycle-like appearance. Experts disagreed on whether it is a true motorcycle. The retro-Art Deco design's central visual element is the 500-horsepower (370 kW), 8.3-litre (510 cu in) V10 SRT10 engine from the Dodge Viper sports car. The Tomahawk's two front and two rear wheels are sprung independently, which would allow it to lean into corners and countersteer like a motorcycle. Dodge press releases and spokespeople gave various hypothetical top speeds ranging from 300 mph (480 km/h) to as high as 420 mph (680 km/h), which analysts thought were probably calculated with horsepower and final drive ratio alone, without accounting for drag, rolling resistance, and stability. These estimates, and the more conservative 250 mph (400 km/h) a designer suggested could be possible, were debunked as implausible, or physically impossible, by the motorcycling and automotive media. No independent road tests of the Tomahawk have ever been published, and the company said that in internal testing it was never ridden above 100 mph (160 km/h). The Tomahawk was sold through the Neiman Marcus catalog at a price of US$555,000, and as many as nine are thought to have been sold. As they were not street legal, Dodge said the reproductions were "automotive sculpture", "intended for display only" not fully operational. Industry observers said the Tomahawk was a resounding success at one-upping rivals and taking the trade show spotlight, and was a branding and marketing coup, generating media buzz and sending...