How Fast Was The Dodge Tomahawk Motorcycle & Why Was It Never Actually Made?

When Dodge introduced its ultra-high-tech concept motorcycle at the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it was met with a mix of shock, awe, and confusion. Forbes, for example, dubbed it a "bacchanalia of metal and death," while Autoweek declared that "brash is the driving attitude at Dodge." Take one look at the vehicle and it's easy to see why. A four-wheeled, art-deco styled billet aluminum bike with an incredible 500-hp V-10 engine, the Tomahawk seemed to flaunt all conventional notions of what a motorcycle should and could be. A bike with an illegal number of wheels, sporting the same engine as the fan-favorite Dodge Viper supercar, built by a manufacturer with zero motorcycle experience, and nominally priced at over half a million dollars — what could go wrong? 

Dodge, in part, recognized the audaciousness of its design. Described as a "sculpture that can be ridden," Dodge stressed that the Tomahawk was for display purposes only — a notion the auto giant seemingly corroborated by only listing it for purchase in a Neiman Marcus catalog. This caution was probably well-founded, as the Dodge Tomahawk was likely the most powerful motorcycle ever produced. At its debut, Dodge estimated that its four-wheeled mega-bike could reach nearly 400 mph, a number that would far exceed any of the fastest motorcycles ever built. The company, however, never tested the limits of its rolling sculpture. Instead, it sold just nine units through the American luxury department store.

The Dodge Tomahawk was nothing if not ambitious. First designed as a series of sketches by then-38-year-old Mark Walters, the motorcycle quickly evolved in just three months from a novel pitch to a half-a-million-dollar collaboration between Chrysler and specialty restoration shop RM Corp. At 1,500 pounds, the Tomahawk was nearly 200 pounds more than the heaviest Harley-Davidson ever made, the three-wheeled, two-seater Tri Glide Ultra. The 8.3-liter 10-cylinder Viper V-10 engine was so large that the design team added a fourth wheel to stop riders from tipping over. Delivering 500 hp and 525 lb-ft of torque, the Viper V-10 is one of the most extreme engines ever put into a motorcycle.

Putting the engine into a motorcycle paid immediate dividends for a manufacturer looking to push the boundaries of speed and acceleration in motorcycles. The Tomahawk's estimated 2.5-second 0 to 60 time would make it faster than the famed Porsche 918 Spyder, while its predicted top speed of 400 mph would likely have made the Tomahawk the fastest bike to ever hit production. That is, if anyone was foolhardy enough to test it. As Trevor Creed, Chrysler's Senior VP of Design and a key member of the Tomahawk design team, said at the bike's release, "The Dodge brand philosophy always challenges us to grab life by the horns. In the case of Tomahawk, grabbing and holding onto anything for dear life is a necessity."

True to its designation as a "rolling sculpture," the Dodge Tomahawk never made it out of the showroom floor and onto the streets. Sold for $550,000 in Neiman Marcus' 2003 Christmas catalogue, the Tomahawk was one of the world's most expensive motorcycles despite not being fit for the road. As such, it's no surprise that Dodge only sold nine models of its infamous concept vehicle. Although Dodge has never formally stated why their most absurd creation never hit the assembly line, it doesn't take a genius to deduce why, as the bike's wheels alone prevented it from becoming street legal. 

Beyond its lack of street-legal status, many remarked that the motorcycle was too dangerous to drive. Dodge, for its part, probably agreed, since it never road-tested the vehicle. In fact, the car's speed numbers remain unverified, and some remain skeptical. In 2003, Chrysler's COO Wolfgang Bernhard stated that no one had ever surpassed 100 mph on the bike. And while a custom-built Millyard Viper V10 would break speed records with the same engine nearly 20 years later, it is impossible to say whether anyone had ever pushed the Dodge Tomahawk to its limit. This may be missing the point, however, as the bike was likely never designed to hit the streets in the first place.