THE ENGINE that will power the Roland Sands-designed Victory ‘Project 156’ up the Pikes Peak hillclimb has been revealed – and it’s a far cry from the usual air-cooled twins you might associate with the firm.

The motor, derived from the Indian Scout engine, was blurred out on earlier images of the bike, but now it’s been on the dyno and is reported to be performing well.

In terms of specs, there’s nothing official but it’s sure to be a 1200cc unit (the Pikes Peak limit for twins is 1205cc) and given its modern design, it’s got to be able to make something above 150bhp. That’s a lot more than the Scout manages, but the Indian version of the engine is in a very low state of tune.

The bike will be ridden by Cycle World road test editor Don Canet at the Colorado Springs event on 28 June, but the bike’s significance is likely to extend beyond the one-off racer, since the engine is also likely to appear, in some form, in a future Victory production bike as the firm shifts its focus towards higher performance bikes.

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