My Dad's Garage: Confederate Motorcycles' Hellcat X132
The rev of the engine. The wind in your face. The world at your back. You must be riding a Hellcat X132, Confederate Motorcycles‘ ironclad pride and joy — and I wish it were in my garage.
Operating out of Birmingham, Alabama and celebrating twenty-two years of American hand-craftsmanship, Confederate Motorcycles thrives by selling heirloom quality bikes to high profile citizens with the means to own such machinery. One such machine is the Hellcat X132.
Named after the illustrious F6F Hellcat, a fearsome fighter plane dating back to World War II, the Hellcat is the current backbone of Confederate Motorcycles’ line of work. Inspired by the Hellcat X132′s older brothers, the first generation Hellcat and the second generation Hellcat X124, this new addition to the Confederate Motorcycles’ family is sleek, more advanced and beautifully engineered.
“Having ridden each of the previous Hellcat variants, I was quite unprepared for what awaited me as I threw a leg over the X132 and nestled into the surprisingly comfortable ultra-minimalist seat. Unlike its predecessors, this new Hellcat is no cruiser, but instead a 21st century re-interpretation of an old-school British cafe racer,” Alan Cathcart wrote in Motorcyclist.
The Hellcat X132 packs a big air/oil-cooled 56.25-degree X-Wedge V-twin engine made by S&S. It’s aluminum case is made from two blocks of billet 6061 aircraft grade aluminum. It’s horsepower boasts 135 bhp at 5100 rpm with 152 foot pounds of torque at 2000 rpm. To make the format work, the bike’s designer, Ed Jacobs, had to draft an entirely new design strategy, inventing a new class of motorcycle that Cathcart is calling the “cafe cruiser”.
Priced at approximately $50,000, which is still considerably less than the machine’s $72,000 predecessors, there’s no doubt that the Hellcat X132 is a bit pricey. However, according to Cathcart’s previously quoted Motorcyclist article, Confederate Motorcycles only hoped to build roughly 168 bikes last year, making the Hellcat X132 quite exclusive.
You see, the Hellcat X132 is more than just a motorcycle. It’s the whiskey you drink. It’s the jacket you sport. It’s a man-made machine that manifests your own personal self expression. It’s a trophy wife. To own the Hellcat X132 would gain its owner unlimited bragging rights for life. So if you’re in the market for a new bike and have some extra cash, remember — anyone can own a Harley…own a Confederate.
This article was originally published on a now-defunct men’s lifestyle blog called of Iron and Oak.