Excerpts from your article. There it is, coulda - shoulda - woulda. Once again the bean-counters and pursuit of short-term corporate profits put the buyer back in the muck. BSA/Triumph/Norton failed to progress with much the same outcome. Royal Enfield is pursuing a process of actual gradual improvement in response to market demand, so far so good. The LC450 engine will likely be their functional "Nova" and produce many spin offs, maybe even an LC900 version of the Interceptor 650. Can't wait for my affordable, average-size-guy version of the KLR650.
At the heart of the project lay top-secret engines—to be developed in collaboration with Porsche—that would have knocked much of the motorcycle world on its duff, had they all been brought to production. Though technical specifics are a little sketchy even to this day, the line would have included modular liquid-cooled double overhead cam engines in 400 or 500cc increments: a 60 degree V-twin displacing 400cc or 500cc, a V-4 displacing 800cc or 1000cc and a V-6 displacing 1200cc or 1500cc.
The Nova design was sleek and slippery and unlike any Harley before—note the fuel filler cap above the right saddle bag on the rear fender.
That would allow use of common bore and stroke dimensions, that would enable use of some common components such as pistons, connecting rods, rings and so on across the entire line. Output would have been targeted for about 135 hp from the top of the line models. Each version would include counterbalancers.
All of the engines would be oversquare bore/stroke configurations with the short stroke enabling much higher revving engines than the long-stroke V-twins in use. Initial models would have two valves per cylinder, but the heads were designed to allow transition to a four valve layout without completely re-designing them.
The engines included what appear to be conventional air-cooling fins, even though they would all be liquid cooled. Porsche was selected to develop the engine and five speed transmissions for each variant in the Nova series. Harley’s design team handled chassis and all other aspects of product development.
Fuel delivery would have been by carburetor, as was common practice, but fuel injection would also be in the plan. From there, things were in for big changes. For example, for the first time since the WWII-era XA, final drive would have been shaft, at least in the initial designs. Ultimately, the lighter and cheaper option of using belt final drive was selected.
A pressed steel main frame uses the engine as a structural member, so without a cradle design no front downtubes are necessary giving the bike a cleaner look as well reducing chassis weight. Elegant, aerodynamic bodywork for touring versions included sleek saddlebags with integral turn signals and a low-profile top box. Wind tunnel testing of each version was done to minimize drag and turbulence while maximizing aesthetics, which were under the design direction of Willie G. Davidson.
Looking back on the Nova project one can’t help but wonder what impact it might have had. Release of the V-4 models was slated for 1981—a full year before Honda rolled out its own V-4 powered bikes.
The implications of beating Honda—and everybody else, for that matter—to the market with a high-tech V-4 could have been game-changing in both the domestic and international motorcycle market for Harley-Davidson, when coupled with the introduction of the Evolution engine for the air-cooled V-twin segment of the business.
That achievement, coupled with the rapid deployment of fuel-injected V-6-powered superbikes before the competition had time to catch their breath in the wake of the V-4’s roll-out and the addition of a new DOHC smaller displacement V-twin could have had all of the Motor Company’s competitors spending a lot of overtime on R & D and their Directors of Product Development munching Rolaids till they frothed at the mouth.
The face of racing and Harley-Davidson’s place in it would have been changed dramatically, as well. Nova would have given tuners, builders and riders the potential for monster horsepower with implications in drag racing, road racing, land speed racing; you name it.
The scramble to catch up would have been like the Keystone Cops as the competition would have had to try to figure out where to counter-punch first. It would have planted Harley-Davidson firmly atop market segments it had basically conceded to everyone else up to that time.
Topic: Harley Davidson (Read 6126 times)