In Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga, Hunter S. Thompson described how it felt to take his motorcycle down the coast for a late night ride, writing about the transformative moment when the “strange music starts” and one hits “The Edge.” The moment you are going so fast that your eyelids pull back and there is no room for mistakes. “There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over,” he explained. Alabama’s Confederate Motorcycles most certainly had this sentiment in mind when they created their second-generation, limited-edition Confederate G2 P51 Fighter Combat motorcycle—especially considering they hold Thompson up as one of their “rebel anti-heroes.”
“I wanted a big American bike that is fierce and explosive,” says founder Matt Chambers, “a raw and stripped down rebel motorcycle.” Using the free-wheeling, stripped-down days of the 1960s as inspiration, the company promises that their new bike is 12.5 percent lighter than its predecessor thanks to its 6061 aerospace billet aluminum frame—which even includes the engine block and heads. It also has a V-twin 200hp+ big-block, air-cooled, push-rod engine that gives 170 lb-ft of torque that is apparently 25 percent stronger than the previous model, making it pretty ideal for those long Hunter S.-inspired rides.
Confederate Motorcycles will only be making 61 units of their “metaphor for American rebellion,” 31 will be raw machined billet for $113,900 and 30 in billet anodized black for $119,500.