Indian Motorcycles has returned to professional flat track racing.
Yesterday, the Polaris subsidiary announced they would be entering a team in AMA’s Pro Flat Track series, their first fully factory-funded racing program since the original Indian organization went bust wayyyyy back in the 1950s.
Indian, with the help of a Swiss firm, has developed a new 750 cc motor for the series, a liquid-cooled four-valve V-twin. Obviously, they’re also working on a special chassis, as their cruiser platforms aren’t suited for going slideways in the dirt.
The bike will officially be known as the Scout FTR750.
Jared Mees, who’s won the AMA Grand National championship several times, will be piloting the Indian this season. In their press release, Mees said ““We will have a lot of work to do to develop a 100 percent new race platform, but I’m committed and excited at what I have seen on the drawing boards and what the plans are for Indian Motorcycle Racing. This is history for the brand, and being a part of it is truly exciting for me and this sport.”
Recently, Harley-Davidson also announced a flat track version of their newish liquid-cooled Street 750 platform. The competition in the made-in-America motorcycle scene is starting to heat up, and that looks promising for the future.
The AMA and FIM must get with the times. The future is turbos. Gp cars at least have caved to the shareholders. Why spend on naturally aspirated engines when production cars are turbo?
Ugly rumors of duc being cut out of the vw family money are support of this view.
Considering that the engine is being developed from scratch by a Swiss performance firm, I doubt it’ll have much in common with the Scout or Octane except for being a V-twin …
Guess Polaris neglected to forward that part of the Technical Preview tidbit to us. Thanks, will update.
They really are going to produce a complete motorcycle like Harley did when they introduced the XR750 back in the 1970s ?
Something like that has been a long time coming and could really open things up.
If HD is doing the same thing this could get REALLY interesting. 🙂
As the AMA sandbags non-HD competitors
Hmmmm, methinks that looks like a great little engine for a midsized touring platform like the FJ900 or Versys.
http://www.cycleworld.com/indian-motorcycle-ftr750-dirt-track-race-engine-exclusive-technical-preview