Acceleration & Top Speed

Dodge claimed a 0-60 mph time of roughly 2.5 seconds, an extraordinary figure for a vehicle balanced on two closely spaced pairs of wheels. Top speed was marketed at up to 420 mph, but this was a theoretical extrapolation based on the engine’s power curve, not a tested figure. In practice, the most any engineer took the Tomahawk during internal testing was around 100 mph, and even that reportedly revealed real stability concerns at speed — a gap between claimed and tested performance that defines much of the Tomahawk’s story.

Design and Styling

Visually, the Tomahawk looks unmistakably like a motorcycle — a single saddle-style seat, exposed V10 engine dominating the frame, and motorcycle-style handlebars and instrumentation. What sets it apart is the wheel layout: four wheels arranged in two closely spaced pairs, one at the front and one at the rear, rather than the two wheels a real motorcycle would use. Headlights were relocated to sit between the front wheel pair, since there was nowhere else on the frame to put them.

Suspension and Handling

The four-wheel layout wasn’t a styling choice – it existed purely to manage the Viper V10’s torque output, which Chrysler’s engineers determined a conventional two-wheel motorcycle simply couldn’t handle safely. Each wheel pair uses independent suspension, giving the Tomahawk a genuinely unusual riding dynamic that blends motorcycle-style lean-in cornering with the added stability of four contact patches.

Wheels and Tyres

The Tomahawk runs on four narrow motorcycle-style wheels and tyres, paired front and rear, rather than the wide car tyres you’d expect given the power output. This setup was central to keeping the bike’s motorcycle character intact while still finding a way to put the V10’s power down.

Braking System

Braking duties are handled by a motorcycle-derived setup across all four wheels, engineered to manage stopping the Tomahawk’s 680 kg weight from the very high speeds its engine was theoretically capable of reaching.

Price and Exclusivity

Each Tomahawk was hand-built and sold for approximately $555,000 in 2003 — worth close to $950,000 today when adjusted for inflation. Only 10 units were ever produced, sold explicitly as rolling sculpture rather than a functional street vehicle, with nine going to private collectors and Chrysler retaining the tenth for its own museum. It still holds a Guinness World Record for the most powerful production motorcycle ever built.