Would You Buy A Porsche-Powered, Harley Davidson ‘Superbike’?
Was the V-4 Nova Project a harbinger of the future or a ‘$10 million Dead End’?
Ever heard of a Harley touring bike with power by Porsche? A liquid-cooled engine with 40 years of tried and true testing? Twin overhead cams?
It’s all just fantasy because such a motorcycle does not exist. It almost did, but the Nova Project’s plans to build a radically new “superbike” were scrapped in 1983, despite American and German expertise from Harley Davidson and Porsche respectively.
It was a top secret project that started back in the 1970s and we the people didn’t know about it until about a quarter century later.
Business Decisions Killed the ‘Superbike’
Obviously, the V-4 Nova never made it into production, and the only bike built is the prototype that now sits in the Harley museum, collecting dust and jogging dreams of what might have been.
But, it was a business decision that ultimately led to the death of the project, not the motorcycle itself.
At the time, Motor Company executives, including Willie G. Davidson, were trying to execute an $81.5 million leveraged buyout of the then-owner AMF. AMF balked at the huge expense it would have taken to put the experimental bike into production.
Early Technology Lived On
The fiasco has not been forgotten, with stories about the demise of the project appearing occasionally in motorcycle publications.
Around $10 million was invested in the Nova project, leading some publications, like the Northwest Harley Blog, to call it the “$10 million Dead End.”
Maybe, even though some of the technology Porsche and Harley Davidson brought to the effort did yield positive results for later models.
That fairing you see on the prototype was later used on the ’83 Sport Glide and of course the liquid-cooled Revolution engine technology showed up later on the V-Rod, and on today’s Sportser S and Nightster. Some of their early cooling and fuel injected designs were integral to the later Twin Cam 88 and 96 engines.
No Replacement for the V-Twins
The V-4 Nova looked a little like the Pan America of today, with some obvious differences. The earlier bike had twin overhead cams and cylinders spaced at 60 degrees rather than the usual 45.
The radiator was located above the engine and the gas tank was under the seat; you had to fill it up on the right side of the rear fender. There were other design factors that prompted the project as well.
“At the time, we thought Harley needed a new range, to complement rather than to replace the V-twins,” Mike Hillman, the engineer who led the project, told Hagerty Media. “Emissions and noise regulations were getting tighter and we weren’t sure we could make the air-cooled engine meet them. The Japanese manufacturers were swamping the market with different products, and we wanted something to compete.”
The prototype engine was 800 cc which was considered big back in the day, but the Motor Company actually planned a family of the bikes, ranging from 400 cc to a V-6 1,500 cc bike.
What Secret Projects Does Harley Have Now?
The doomed Nova Project has another intriguing aspect to it. It begs the question: Does the Motor Company have other super-secret pilot programs going on?
Are HD engineers secretly putting the liquid-cooled Revolution Max technology into motorcycles that look like traditional Harley Davidsons?
Will Harley Davidson ever partner with Porsche again? What would that experiment look like?
As their core customers age, will they put $10 million into building smaller, lighter touring motorcycles powered by the Revolution Max engines?
I hope it doesn’t take a quarter century to find out.
Photos: Harley Davidson
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