Harley-Davidson Street Rod drag racer?

Harley-Davidson is hitting the drag strips in America with a new race bike that looks a lot like a production 750cc Street Rod.

But it’s not really a Street Rod, just the Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines V-Rod race bike in new aerodynamic bodywork inspired by the Street Rod.

It’s been a few years since Harley built the race-ready production V-Rod Destroyer.

But now the V-Rod family is being discontinued and Harley-Davidson Vice President of Styling & Design Brad Richards confirms this project is part of their transition to a new racer.

“It’s exciting moving on to a new platform and going into a completely different motorcycle line,” he says.

“This bike is kind of their wave of the future and to be a part of that is pretty cool. We’re transitioning to a new model after racing with the V-Rod since 2002, and we feel good about bringing it out into competition.”

Harley currently races in the heavyweight National Hot Rod Association Pro Stock Motorcycle class and the 750cc Street Pro would be way underpowered, so maybe they are looking at other engines.

Their new team racer wears Street Rod competition bodywork designed at the Harley-Davidson Design Studio in Milwaukee and wind-tunnel tested in Indianapolis. It was developed with Vance & Hines and will be piloted by Matt Hines and Eddie Krawiec.

Brad says they wanted to create a new body that would not only be competitive on the track but also “embody the personality of the production Street Rod”.

“We particularly love the design of the fairing and the bobbed tail section because they truly identify the motorcycle. Whether it’s the race bike or the production bike, from 200 feet away you know it’s a Street Rod.”

Maybe a production drag Street Pro is one of the promised 100 new models in the next 10 years! If not, then perhaps drag-race bodykits will be available down the track.

While the Street Rod has just entered the Australian market, Harley-Davidson Australia (HDA) PR manager David Turney says there are no plans for drag racing the bike here.

Not that HDA isn’t into speed. In 2015 HDA claimed the title of the world’s fastest bagger under 2000cc with a Road Glide called Pepper.