Ted Soqui/Getty ImagesHarley-Davidson's current CEO is a bit of a motorcycle outsider, but that's probably what the company needs for another turnaround. Besides, it wasn't the first time the brand turned to a surprising outside source for help — it actually teamed up with Porsche twice. The two first got together in the late 1970s on Project Nova, with the goal of putting a Porsche-developed engine into a new line of Harleys. The bikes never made it into production, despite millions of dollars of investments and tens of thousands of test miles driven, yet that wouldn't deter Harley and Porsche.The birth of the 21st century also saw the birth of the Harley-Davidson V-Twin Racing Street Custom, aka the V-Rod. The bike could rocket through the LA County Raceway quarter-mile in 11.31 seconds with a trap speed of 115 mph. Keep on going, and the V-Rod would show off a terminal velocity of 130 mph. Providing that motivation was an 1130-cc engine with 115 horsepower and 74 pound-feet of torque wrapped in a package that weighed 615 pounds with a full tank of gas. It was developed by Porsche, though it was based on the model used in the Harley VR1000 superbike.The V-Rod combined speed with style, too, blending design elements of a laid-back cruiser with the kind of performance needed to compete with contemporary Japanese sportbikes. So what's that look like? You ride the Harley from a low seating position, getting a grip on the swept-back handlebars that seem to stretch right into the noticeably raked front forks.Evolution of the V-Rod bikesHarley-DavidsonThe V-Rod family was in production from 2002 to 2017 and included some of Harley-Davidson's most expressive machines. The 2006 Night Rod, for example, gave the bike the blackout treatment with a black frame, a black-and-chrome fuel tank, and available exterior colors like Vivid Black and Black Denim. Also standard were Brembo brakes for its striking aluminum wheels. More mechanical enhancements came in 2008, when Harley upped displacement to 1247cc, increasing output to 123 horsepower and 86 pound-feet of torque at the same time.The same engine was used in the 2008 V-Rod Muscle that garnered attention for design elements drawn from custom choppers. Speaking of which, it's worth pointing out that two of the more famous chopper riders — Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper — chose V-Rods for their own personal bikes. In 2010, Harley-Davidson's Night Rod got darker with a Special edition that built on the original with a powder-coated black engine, black chrome, and black mirror caps.Of course, those are street-legal V-Rods. Harley-Davidson also blew up the drag-racing scene in 2006 with the V-Rod Destroyer, taking a page out of the same playbook that brought the Chevrolet COPO Camaro back in 2021. With its engine bored and stroked to 1300cc, the Destroyer could unleash 170 hp and 100 pound-feet of torque — no factory Harley has yet to make more — and dominate the quarter-mile with runs in the low 9-second range.What happened to the V-Rods?Haggardous50000/ShutterstockPorsche's powerful V-Rod engines had some impressive advantages, but their ability to limit emissions wasn't one of them. That turned out to be a key reason the V-Rod models were dropped from the Harley-Davidson lineup after 2017. Any thoughts of modifying the engine to meet the new emissions standard were outweighed by the company's need to rein in spending.The issue was that the V-Rods — engines and bikes alike — were oddballs in the Harley-Davidson lineup. Neither its motors nor its looks were shared with other motorcycles in the brand's portfolio, and Harley's customers increasingly showed they liked it that way. So rather than continue to spend their limited funds trying to appeal to two customer bases, the company's director opted to put their money where their heritage was.Let's end by pointing out that the ultimate beginnings of the Porsche engine, which we noted was derived from Harley's VR1000, actually came from yet a third player. The engine originated in the garage of Roush Racing, more often known for four-wheel performance efforts like its first Nissan collab with the 2026 Frontier. Roush had even gotten to the point of firing up a few early examples of the engine before Harley brought the project in-house — and shipped it right out to Porsche for the V-Rod motor.Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and follow us or add us as a preferred search source on Google.
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