Profile of Victory Project 156 engine, courtesy of Roland Sands Instagram
As we reported earlier, Victory has two race bikes under development, including an electric bike for the Isle of Man, and the Project 156 bike that is gas powered and will be piloted by CycleWorld’s Don Canet at Pikes Peak. MD just found the above photo of the Project 156 v-twin engine on the Instagram of Roland Sands, the lead designer for the motorcycle. Shortly thereafter, Roland Sands Designs alerted us to the new video embedded at the bottom of this article, which has additional information and images regarding the engine.
Some of our readers speculated that this is a re-purposed Indian Scout engine. Below is a photo of the Indian Scout engine from the same side (the right side). Clearly, new machinings and castings are visible on the exterior of the Project 156 engine. Tell us what you think.
Indian Scout production engine profile
news is out on this!
https://ultimatemotorcycling.com/2015/06/03/victory-project-156-pikes-peak-bike-by-roland-sands-exposed/
What does it look like to you???
The video does show some great tuning on this motor !Very high compression piston with flat valve angles.Short cylinders & a camshaft with good lift and fairly conservative duration would work very well on a course that has 156 turns in 12.42 miles.AS a 10x motorcycle champion on Pikes Peak and motor builder would like to try my hand at that 150plus H.P.motorbike !Guessin it’s going to handle & slow down real well also.
I’d think decent HP with lots of torque would work great at Pike’s. I’ve been up that road and you need something that will PULL. Not to mention many corners are very tight and slow….this ain’t GP racing at all. Might be a very good attempt. either way…good for you Victory/Indian.
Torque never won any races that I know of, though the road up the peak probably does put a finite number on the amount of horsepower that can effectively be used. Jeremy Toye won current honors on a ZX-10R, and Ducati Multistradas were the dominant mounts for several years prior to that. So “decent” horsepower is going to be a pretty high number.
Yes, you need power to pull. More power equals more pull.
This is one of the more interesting and remarkable projects I have read about at this site or anywhere else. Good on Victory!
May they win the race in style!
I hereby name this motor” Twin-C3PO’s “
At 1:32 in the video, why are they welding AFTER the engine is installed?
=
It’s not an Indian. It’s a Native American.
RE: “Tell us what you think.”
A: I think I’m in heaven.
120HP? Ducati is running scared.
What’s the big rush to judgement? Jeez. Were you thinking it would be a reasonable expectation that the first performance slanted Indian/Victory would just put everything else on the trailer? Give ’em a minute.
Where did you come up with 120 hp?
It’s about fifteen developmental years behind the 1991 Britten v1000.
Isn’t everything?
Based on the Scout’s displacement of (almost) 1,200cc and practical rpm limits I’m betting no more than 150 hp from this design…not that that’s anything to sneeze at. Could be a bit more but then its state of tune would make it even harder to dial fueling in because of elevation change.
Will there be a victory in the future for Victory?
well played Bob… well played.
Repurposed Scout vs all new? Honestly, I’m just happy as hell that they’re doing it. I don’t care if they repurposed an old watercraft engine they found behind some crates in their warehouse.
Polaris knows what its like to go fast…offroad. I’d like to think the motorcycle divisions got a taste of that with the new Scout…and as has happened to nearly all of us at some point, they want more.
Fast is Good 🙂
Looking at various pictures from around the ‘net, it appears to be a Scout block, and the single piece machined side cover is possibly a ‘blown-proof’ design to handle all the increased power/torque from the upgrades. Too, the heads seem slightly different, again possibly/likely due to HP/timing/compression changes.
One has to wonder if Victory/Polaris/Indian aren’t about to start using he the Scout engine configuration for ‘cross-brand’ models. Victory is definitely in for a style/purpose revamp, and it looks likes the direction they’re heading for is out of the bag.
Careful Polaris. Racing has bankrupted a lot of motorcycle companies.
Polaris did just under $4.5 billion in sales last year, so I think building a Pikes Peak bike is probably doable.
Agreed. It won’t break the bank and it will be well spent R&D money down the road.
I was asking a guy from a repair shop what he thought about the several brands given that he sees so many motorcycles, and when we were talking about Kawi he told me that the smartest move they could have do was pulling out of GP, that allowed them to stop bleeding money and focus on the business.
I’m not sure how much of that if truth but if it is; is on line with your comment.
There is a _very_ wide gulf between building a Pike’s Peak racer that’s using a motor you’re already developing for production anyway and fielding a 2 rider MotoGP team. They’ve got individual milling machines in that factory that cost orders of magnitude more money they’re spending to do this.
That’s what I was referring to. I wouldn’t think a little jaunt like this will put Polaris in the poor house, but if they start eyeballing WSB or MotoGP, I’d be nervous as a stockholder. It bankrupted Aprilia.
Anyone know if any network is televising the race? I’d like to cheer these guys on.
Most Americans pay no attention to this. The europeans think it’s the greatest. Look for coverage later from across the pond.
Is PPIHC still a Redbull sponsored event? If so, they might stream it on Redbull.tv.
They have this new thing all the kids are using it’s called the internet and it has all the information about the race.
Come on boys!! A Good Ole ‘Merican big displacement, monster torque, ground-shaking, twisty road straightening, tube-framed fire-breathing, RC8 eating… Hoo-Doggie, I’m gittin the shivers!
“Hoo-Doggie, I’m gittin the shivers!” ROFL excellent
This…+1000 LOL
I spy a secondary radiator AND an oil cooler. With all that extra cooling it looks like this thing might be putting down some serious neddies.
In race spec I’m hoping that 200hp isn’t be out of the question.
Sweet, and getting it done right here in Minnesota…
Dirck, You need to follow this story and give us a full report. I want to know the different classes, winners and riders point of view. I want it double spaced and on my desk immediately after the race. You picking up what I’m laying down?
Not exactly.
I believe what he is asking for is: please give us a race report, don’t just recycle Victory’s or Ducati’s press release.
I think its evident & obvious that Dirck is “on the job”…
I would say 2 months with all comments on “Waiting for review” without explanation, you’ll have to switch to your alter-ego’s account Cold Dog
Yup, you’re right, the Fun Nun will temper me to a nothing little responder. Ignorance is bliss.
Way to go Victory, to bad the other American company can not do any thing other than their low performance out dated stuff they have been playing over and over with .
Blame American voters, for being stupid enough to be suckereed into accepting speed enforcement, that makes anything better handling than low compression, aircooled 1950s hardtails and jacked up, body on frame solid axle pickups, entirely superfluous on American roads.
Have you never left Nebraska?
Left it, entered it, crossed it…. Along with most every other state in the country. Been ticketed in most of them as well. The latter’s only getting worse. I really challenge anyone to come up with many meaningful, from a transportation perspective, start and end points that are substantially quicker connected with a well handling vehicle than one of the above mentioned anachronisms. Assuming a reasonable cap on ticketing/confiscation/jail risk.
Used to be I could make L.A. – San Francisco faster “down the middle” (58 etc.) than via freeways, given a decent car/bike. Now, every donut grazer in every little town and county along the route have decided to make that too risky. Ditto for LA-Vegas. Even LA-Bozeman is now not really doable off i15 with any real time savings compared to just sitting, on freeway, on cruise in a jacked up truck eating cheeetoz the whole way. Used to be much quicker, until the gambling downturn “forced” Nevada to turn to Highway robbery to pay it’s tax feeders. Ditto for Idaho and lowcarb fads’ negative impact on potato sales, or whatever is their excuse de jour.
And this is the West. East of Nebraska, fat chance…… Alex Roy spent how many attempts getting past Ohio on his infamous Cannonball run? And it’s not like thing’s have exactly improved since then.
Doesn’t mean you can’t find yourself some gocart track to go round and round where a Showelhead may be at some disadvantage compared to more modern designs, but motorbikes (and cars) are first and foremost transportation devices. That’s how most people use them. And that’s why Germans in general give more of a toot about dynamic performance of their cars, than those of us stuck in “The Land of the Free to sue, free to vote, and free to do nothing else whatsoever.”
If driving an Escalade means you are stuck 50% longer on the way to grandma’s than driving a Panamera, and ditto for LA-Vegas on a Harley vs a Hayabusa, people respond to that in the purchasing choices. But if instead, you happen to live in some police state that clips each and every advantage better performing vehicles has over those less so, that gets reflected in buying patterns as well. When the Escalade is, for all practical purposes, just as fast as the Pan, and the HD as the Hayabusa. So why even bother?
Americans don’t just mindlessly buy dynamically underperforming vehicles because they all happen to be “stooopind” and “unsophistimecated” compared to Euros. They do so, because vehicles dynamically superior, don’t have similar advantages here. Quit dragging the ‘Busa down to some Hardtail’s level by legal means, and suddenly the ‘Busa becomes an all that more attractive proposition. Very rational, indeed.
“Blame American voters, for being stupid enough to be suckereed into accepting speed enforcement”
89% of Americans do not accept it. We just risk the citation.
“Blame American voters, for being stupid enough to be suckereed into accepting speed enforcement,…”
What an incredibly dumb comment.
re: “jacked up, body on frame solid axle pickups”
FISTPUMP…!!!
My guess is its a 1200-1300cc – 200 HP Moonshot
An Open Class, Wide Open, Hooligan Special aimed at the KTM 1290 Super Duke R and the Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 RR
I like people who think big!
what do they say???
Go BIG or Go HOME
My guess is more like a tube framed S1/X1 lightning with no more than 120 at the wheel.
que the sound of air leaving a balloon…
that wouldn’t create much buzz in the industry
As the duly elected representative of generation Y, I say give me a big ‘merican V-twin powered sport bike and screw the touring mount – let the baby boomers bugger off on their VFR’s and Versys.
Seriously though *lust* if Victory is actually putting a performance naked into production. I had read that the engine in the scout seemed like it was capable of far more performance they managed to squeeze out for that model so it’s natural that this new engine is not a ground up redesign. I had read that the engine in the scout seemed like it was capable of far more performance they managed to squeeze out for that model so it’s natural that this new engine is not a ground up design but if someone else is already mentioned
If you are representative of Gen Y then they (you) are truly clueless.
At 65 and some 30 bikes later, I would embrace an American light cruiser/standard/ sportbike.
Ever ridden a VFR ?
My guess is no.
I didn’t vote for you
You don’t vote for representatives of Generation Y…
That was a joke people! I thought it was obvious ‘as the duly elected…’ but i guess not!
Jeez tough crowd tonight
Hmmm. V-angle looks to be the same. Distance and angle of clutch center to water pump center looks to be the same as well. Dipstick in the exact same spot.
My vote is that it is a Scout derivative getting the “light is right” treatment , thus the custom castings and mill work.
It does make sense that it was based on something rather than a true one-off motor. But I’ll bet they have nudged it up towards the right side of the performance curve!
Can’t wait to see how it runs up Pike’s Peak. I’d kinda hate to be Mr. Canet, though – he’s fast but I’d hate to have that kind of pressure (to ride fast) over THAT kind of course!
It’s in his blood – Its what he “wants” to do
Well, last year he ran it for the first time in his life…and finished 3rd.
No question he’s fast, on all kinds of machinery.
Worry not about Mr. Canet’s safety. This is the same man who raced a nitrous oxide injected Gixxer in the old Formula USA series!
http://www.cycleworld.com/2011/02/12/don-canet-nitrous-f-usa-suzuki-the-rider-files/
F-USA was fantastic! I remember watching a round in Portland a, ahem, number of years ago. They were putting dry ice in a chamber adjacent to the fuel load of David Sadowski’s big-bore Honda (loosely based on a 900RR or thereabouts). To say nothing of the two stroke GP bikes and other wild creations that ran.
re: “F-USA was fantastic”
FUSA was the series that gave us the names Larry Pegram and John Hopkins. Aprilia 250 challenge. anyone…? anyone…? bueller…?
“…Distance and angle of clutch center to water pump center looks to be the same as well. Dipstick in the exact same spot….”
The crankcase has a similar layout as the Scout engine, but the dimensions look different and more compact.
http://www.motorcycledaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/081214middle1-730×501.jpg
http://www.motorcycledaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/080614top2.jpg
“but the dimensions look different and more compact.”
I don’t know… the case looks almost identical to me.
I have to agree with Jeremy. The clutch cover is different as it has moved the clutch cable to the top instead of the rear on the Scout. It is a modified Scout engine – not a clean sheet
re: “Hmmm. V-angle looks to be the same.”
that’s because your vision #2 is better than 20/20 in both eyes.
from a cost standpoint, repurposing the block casting makes all the sense in the world. it’s only a page ripped from the Italian (read Ducati) playbook.
That engine would make a great light touring mount. We aging bady boomers need a lighter tourer – our leg strength is waning! Please, Polaris, just put a smooth batwing-ish faring, a posh seat, and conservative panniers on it – y’all have tried shock therapy, why not try classy smooth styling for a change?
That’s what Indian is for