Europeans cherish the performance of their sport cars and custom motorcycles. And where Americans would favor theme bikes about the western era, American Natives, NASCAR and Mc Donald’s (!?!) they are fond of paying tribute on 2 wheels to their automobile brand names. Saw a lot (too many) Ferrari theme bikes, but more rarely Porsche tribute custom bikes.
As an introduction, 2 facts that most Americans don’t know. First, Porsche was founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche, an Austrian engineer, not a German. Second, the company was during many years only a motor development and consulting firm, not building cars under its name. First assignment from the German government was to conceive a “car for the people” (In German, Volkswagen), resulting in the Volkswagen Bettle with the 1st Porsche model (Porsche 64) developed in 1939 using most components from the Beetle.
To tell the tale of this legendary car brand, which today (with Mercedes and BMW) still defines the “Made in Germany“, this tribute bike could only adopt a street-fighter look with a big-inch stroker engine form S&S Cycles, hand-made frame and aggressive body work, a beefy front end many paint job references to Le Mans, Steve McQueen, James Dean (killed behind the wheel of his Porsche 550 Spider) and other images of the Porsche family history, all airbrushed by top-noch artist Marcus Pfeil. Built by German Custrom Wolf, a shop specializing in custrom street-fighter style custrom motorcycles. (Photography copyright Frank Sander)
Bike Name: Tribute to Porsche
Builders: Wolfgang Bätz, Christian Märtl
Engine: S&S 113”
Frame Rake: 40°
Swingarm:MMS Cycles/Custom-Wolf
Front End Make / Type:Thunderbike RS
Transmission Type:Softail 5-speed
Front Wheel: Thunderbike Vegas Cut 4,5 x 18
Rear Wheel: Thunderbike Vegas Cut/ 10 x 18
Front Brake: Thunderbike / ZX 10 R
Rear Brake: Buell / Braking “Wave”
Front Tire: Metzeler 130/60/18
Rear Tire: Metzeler 280/35/18
2)Exactly what I was thinking since Porsche designed the V-Rod engine…
3)I think Dr Wolfgang Porsche would be very unimpressed with this. It’s the antithesis of Porsche’s design philosphy.