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Confederate Hellcat

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It is fall, which means it is also land speed record season up at Bonneville. While our own plans for salt flat were thwarted by some empty promises from an OEM, it seems plenty of teams and manufacturers made it up to Bonneville to test their mettle against the stopwatch.

One such company was Confederate Motorcycles, which took its recently debuted Confederate X132 Hellcat Combat up to the BUB Speed Trials in August, and subsequently set a 171.211 mph land speed record in the A-PF 3000 class (special construction chassis (unfaired), push-rod motor, fuel, & up to 3,000cc in cylinder displacement).

Racing his own bike on the salt flats, we are having a hard time imagining how Confederate customer James Hoegh managed to hold onto his unfaired machine at 171+ mph — it must be all about the tuck. Check the video out after the jump, and if you are anything like us, keep on dreaming about your day racing at the Bonneville.

The Confederate X132 Hellcat is the latest creation from the boutique southern motorcycle brand, and continues the Hellcat lineage’s custom-roadster aesthetic. Like any machine produced by Confederate, the real beauty of the new Hellcat comes down to the bike’s detail finishes, which for the X132 includes a motor casing that was built out of two pieces of billet 6061 aircraft grade aluminum.

Officially spec’d with “sufficient” power and torque figures, the  2,163cc v-twin motor on the X132 is more than eye-catching, and should propel you down the road just fine with its estimated 132 peak horsepower and 150 lbs•ft of torque.

With Confederate only expected to make 162 units of the X132 Hellcat, as usual the name of the game is exclusivity. Pricing has jumped from the initial $44,550, and now is $49,500, with another price increase of roughly $5,000 expected after July 4th. Fifteen more photos of the Confederate X132 Hellcat are after the jump for your viewing pleasure.

It has been almost a year and a half since we first heard of the third generation Confederate X132 Hellcat, and today we get word that the “more affordable” Confederate has been finalized and is ready for pre-production orders. Borrowing on the namesake of its predecessors, the new Hellcat shares some of the basic characteristics of the original Hellcats, while still bringing a very unique look and style to the custom cruiser.

Set to begin production in January, Confederate is taking orders now with a price tag of $45,000 through February, though that price will go to $49,500 in March of 2012. With only 164 Confederate X132 Hellcats to be made, the Alabama-based company expects to make only two units a week.

Talking to the Birmingham NewsConfederate Motorcycles spokesman Clay Morrison said that the boutique motorcycle firm will remain in Alabama, opting not to return to its origin of New Orleans. Expecting its best sales year ever, Confederate was reportedly offered $750,000 by the City of New Orleans to return to the bayou, but with most of its staff based out of Birmingham now, not to mention the supplier and vendor relationships the company has created in the Southern state, Confederate has decided to stay-put.

Confederate is readying its next iteration of its Hellcat series, posting these CAD renderings of the Confederate C3 X132 Hellcat on its website. Originally set to debut on Halloween of this year, Confederate has pushed back the launch date to the second quarter of 2011. For a bike that seemingly only exists on a computer screen, Confederate is being rather cheeky with its tech specs, simply stating that the new Hellcat will have 145 lbs•ft of torque, while listing the horsepower as “sufficient”.

After creating the F131 Hellcat, B120 Wraith, and P120 Fighter Combat, Confederate Motor Company announced at the New York International Auto Show its fourth motorcycle: the C3 X132 Hellcat. Built in conjunction with S&S Cycle (better known for its S&S motors), the new Hellcat is being touted as “the lightest, fastest, toughest, smoothest, most exquisite Hellcat, ever”, which isn’t as lofty of a statement as you’d think considering there’s really only two other motorcycled to compare the new Hellcat to: the two older Hellcats.