Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/103458
2006 Harley-Davidson VRXSE Screamin' Eagle V-Rod Destroyer Bv SCOTT ROUSSEAU PHOTOS Bv KEN SKLUTE/RAcERS EDGE PHOTOGRAPHV humbing the button on HarleyDavidson's newest CVO, I'm greeted with the unmistakable sound of cannon fire. The staccato bursts shatter the air like the 16-inch guns of the USS Missouri as I Inch the meaty, seven-inch-wide rear slick out of the water box and rev the engine to start the burnout procedure. A vise-clamp grip on the front brake lever, a hearty downward thrust on the bars and a snappy release of the clutch lever creates an even more thunderous racket as I'm engulfed in choking blue tire smoke. I simultaneously ease off the brake, roll out of the throttle and pull in the clutch. Inching toward the starting line trips the yellow "pre-staged" beam on the Christmas tree. I take a deep breath, knowing that it will be a little under 10 seconds before I get to take another one - and I'm not taking that for granted. Blipping the throttle, I creep forward another four inches and the "staged" light comes on. Then, like that Mert Lawwill scene in On Any Sunday, the noise fades away and the world goes quiet. At my faintest recognition of glOWing green, my left hand snaps outward and all hell breaks loose for the T 22 next 60 feet... Welcome to the cliffhanger that is the 2006 Harley-Davidson VRXSE Screamin' Eagle V-Rod Destroyer, a limited-production V-Rod which isn't designed with everyone in mind. Just like any amusement-park thrill ride, this one comes with a few warnings: Pregnant women, children and anyone with a heart condition are advised not to ride. Oh yes, and although you cannot legally ride this particular motorcycle on the street, you're still going to need a license if you want to enjoy this thrill on a regular basis. The reason being that for most dragracing sanctioning bodies, a profeSSional license is required for anyone operating a vehicle capable of nine-second quartermile times, and the Destroyer is one such vehicle. It may not be the first production motorcycle to do the 440 in fewer than 10 seconds, but it is the first purpose-built production drag bike to do so. Hell, it's simply the first purpose-built production drag bike, period. How many other production bikes do you know of that come with a wheelie bar? NOT YOUR FATHER'S HOG Maybe not, but what is amazing is how easily the standard VRSCA V-Rod platform, on which the Destroyer is based, has been DECEMBER 14,2005 • CYCLE NEWS transformed into this quarter-mile killer. No disrespect to Harley's capable engineering staff - certainly there had to be some challenges in going from street cruiser to strip terror - but the fact of the matter is that the Destroyer is truly a production-based vehicle. Park the two side by side and the family resemblance is more than just passing; the point being that its competence in full-race trim says a lot about how good the original V-Rod was in the first place. At the same time, the Destroyer isn't merely a warmed-over V-Rod. The hardware contained within is serious racing- type stuff; a far cry from the carefully selected off-the-parts-shelf componentry which jazzes up Harley's street CVOs. For starters, the Destroyer project engineers gutted the standard V-Rod's liquid-cooled 60-degree DOHC eight-valve engine and modified the cases to accept a 75mm stroker crank, which is matched to the same I05mm barrels used on the evo Screamin' Eagle V-Rod street machine, boosting displacement to 79 cubic inches, or roughly 1300cc. The barrels feature ductile iron sleeves to increase bore rigidity and ensure reliability from the abuse of forged, 14: I compression pistons, which swing up and down on the connecting rods. Upstairs, the Destroyer's cylinder heads have been CNC ported and flowed to gulp the air pumped in by larger valves and high-liftllong-duration racing cams, while in the basement a deeper oil pan has been fitted, with a solid gasket metal plate with holes in it - also known as a windage tray - between the pan and the engine cases to keep oil off the crankshaft during a hard launch. The copious amount of trick, 98-octane VP Ultimate-4 race gasoline that the Destroyer's engine requires is fed via twin 58mm throttle bodies (stock V-Rod is 53mm) topped with velocity stacks, while the spent exhaust gases exit via a large, two-into-one exhaust header with a turnout collector that gives off a racy, hotrodlike appearance. Harley-Davidson claims a crankshaft output of 165 horsepower at 9700 rpm and a peak torque output of 97 ft.lbs. at 7600 rpm. Consequently, the Destroyer's transmission is seriously beefed up to handle the Destroyer's extra, uh, beef. The transmission is still a five-speed, but the gear ratios are much steeper than the V-Rod street bike's, and the input, actuator and output shafts have been modified to deal with the violence brought on by high-rpm launches on the Destroyer's Dunlop Screamin' Eagle slicks. The Destroyer transmission also features drag-race specific items, such as an MTC multi-stage lock-up clutch and an