Cruising through Daytona in 1998, Roland Brown attracted many admirers - rather it was the hand-built-in-the-Deep South Confederate Hellcat which he rode which caught the eye. The Hellcat was, reported Roland, 'a Vincent on steroids,' an 'in-yer-face, hard-charging bruiser of a bike'. Safe to say then, that this latest offering from the Louisiana outfit was a V-twin with one hell of an attitude.
'Don't just park it and walk away!'
The Harley rider's shout stopped me in my tracks outside the Daytona Beach diner. I'd pulled up alongside a group of riders, killed the big V-twin motor, leant the bike against its sidestand and headed towards the door. But this guy wanted to know all about it just like everyone else who'd seen the Confederate Hellcat that day.
If you like a quiet life, the Hellcat ain't for you. Long, muscular and aggressive, the big black V-twin with its swept-back handlebars, single saddle and horizontally mounted twin shocks looks like a Vincent Rapide on steriods. In reality it's the latest model from Confederate Motorcycles of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and it draws a crowd wherever it goes.
Confederate have been building their distinctive brand of V-twins for several years now, starting with the Grey Ghost cruiser which, like this bike, was powered by a Harleyesque aircooled V-twin from engine specialists S&S. Several US firms with names like Titan, Big Dog and American Ironhorse have set up in recent years to produce cruisers, most looking very similar to Harleys. But none of them has built anything remotely like the Hellcat.
This is a V-twin with attitude; an in-yer-face, hard-charging bruiser of a bike whose styling is influenced by drag racers as well as the legendary Rapide and Black Shadow. The pair of 1600cc (96 cubic inch) Hellcats that I rode produced 100bhp with loads of low-rev grunt. Confederate can also supply an even bigger and torquier 113 cubic inch version that kicks out 115bhp at the rear wheel.
Actual capacity of the big lump is about 1880cc, but Confederate boss Mat Chambers refers to it as the 1861 which is the year the Civil War began. The Confederate name and the flag on the tank are not there just for fun. Chambers is a bike enthusiast, former lawyer and a student of American history who is driven not just by the desire to build motorcycles and make a few dollars, but to show what the Southern states can do.
The Hellcat's unique look begins with the long gas tank, which narrows at the rear and flows into the thick steel frame spine. The leather-covered single saddle bolts to the frame tube, just above the front mounts for the pair of WP piggy-back shock units that are worked by the cantilever swing-arm. A carbon-fibre mudguard stretches round a fat, 200-section Avon rear tyre.
Unlike its basic profile and all-black finish, the precise specification of the Hellcat varies considerably. The bike I covered more miles on had a low-level two-into-one pipe with SuperTrapp silencer, conventional Ceriani forks, a 19-inch wire-spoked front wheel and a single front disc with four-piston Performance Machine caliper. The second Hellcat had 17-inch cast aluminium wheels, upside-down WP forks, twin discs with four-pot Brembo calipers and a thunderous high-level exhaust system.
Most of the 50 or so machines that have been built at Confederate's Baton Rouge factory since the bike was launched last year have been a mix of these two. The majority have been fitted with the 17-inch wheel/twin disc front end and the conventional, low-level pipe, which allows the big V-twin motor to breathe better than the high-level system.
For all its aggressive look, the Hellcat felt surprisingly laid-back and Harley-like when I'd climbed aboard. Vincent flats and rearset pegs would fit the black bike's image. But instead, the riding position left my arms stretched out to the wide, quite low bars, my body lent slightly forward from the low seat, and feet well forward.
The Confederate's straight-line performance soon got the adrenaline flowing, though. Roll-on acceleration was fearsome. At the tug the wire at about 50mph the Hellcat stormed away, engine pulsing and thundering and hurling me forward almost hard enough to put a tighter bend in those swept-back black handlebars. Moments later the tiny speedo in the headlamp was reading over 100mph with 20mph or so more to come.
The pair of Hellcats I rode had similar engines but they, like the two chassis, felt different. The first motor was very smooth for a solidly-mounted V-twin, giving the whole bike a very sweet, free-revving feel at most speeds. But it suffered from a slight carburation glitch just off idle, and its clutch slipped when the motor was revved hard in the higher gears. The other engine ran flawlessly but was less smooth, though vibration wasn't a problem at moderate speeds.
