Two domestically produced transverse eight-cylinder motorcycles have surfaced and are expected to be available soon.
Look at what beast is under the black cloth in the back!
Do you still remember the six-cylinder engine of the Golden Wing? Great Wall Motors has made it even more ruthless, eight-cylinder!
This news came out last year, and it has been hammered recently. The chairman of Great Wall Motors posted a video on Weibo, accidentally revealing their upcoming new car, which is said to be a luxury touring motorcycle. There is also a roaring engine in the video, which sounds super energetic!
Great Wall Motor's eight-cylinder motorcycle was born, and American cruising enthusiasts carnival!
Last year, rumors and spy photos of the two eight-cylinder motorcycles began circulating on various platforms, one of which resembled the Golden Wing, and the other was reminiscent of the old Honda Rune cruising motorcycle, but now we have a semi-official teaser through a video posted by Mr. Wei on social media.
In the video, he is showing his R&D staff a new Xiaomi S7 electric car that was gifted to him by Xiaomi. But in the background of the video, we can see an upcoming eight-cylinder station wagon with the lid partially pulled open and looks finished.
Around the same time, Mr. Wei posted a clip of the engine sound on social media, presumably belonging to the motorcycle. With the Beijing Auto Show on April 25 approaching, and the bump up of publicity, it seems reasonable to speculate that the first Great Wall motorcycles could be unveiled at the show.
It is unlikely that the motorcycle itself will use the Great Wall Motors brand, as Great Wall Motors already has several sub-brands. The name Great Wall Motors is used on pickup trucks, while the company uses the Haval and Tank brands on SUVs, the Ora brand on electric vehicles, and the Wei brand on luxury MPVs. These motorcycles are expected to have their own unique brand names when they are officially released.
Great Wall Motor's eight-cylinder motorcycle was born, and American cruising enthusiasts carnival!
Of course, since the new eight-cylinder model has now been basically confirmed to go into production, we have also dug up some relevant information in the patent documents. It was found that Great Wall Motors had filed several patent applications for components of motorcycles. The accompanying patent application picture clearly shows the recumbent eight-cylinder engine, the design of which borrows from the design of the Honda Gold Wing, but has been upgraded in several ways. The engine displacement is believed to be around 2,000cc, slightly higher than the current 1,833cc of the Gold Wing, and of course it has two additional cylinders, but the layout is similar to that of the Honda - the gearbox is mounted under the engine, which allows for a more compact overall structure. Like Honda, Great Wall Motor intends to use a dual-clutch semi-automatic transmission and driveshaft transmission on motorcycles.
Great Wall Motor's eight-cylinder motorcycle was born, and American cruising enthusiasts carnival!
While the Golden Wing uses a single overhead camshaft layout, Great Wall Motors' engines have two camshafts per cylinder head. This should help improve performance while also having additional cylinders and displacements. In terms of cooling, the engine's longitudinal crankshaft and flat cylinder layout made it suitable for the same solution used by Honda, which was to install a diversion radiator above each cylinder pack.
Great Wall Motor's eight-cylinder motorcycle was born, and American cruising enthusiasts carnival!
Mr. Wei's video shows only the station wagon model, whose shape is clearly similar to the Golden Wing. This isn't surprising given the engine layout, but the tribute to Honda seems to go a step further, as it looks like the front suspension uses a Hossack-style truss fork instead of a telescopic fork, just like the latest Gold Wing. Judging from the previously leaked spy photos, the frame also follows a style similar to the Honda, and it looks like it is cast in aluminum. China's motorcycle industry understands that mimicking the best available technology is a valuable shortcut when entering a new market, so it's no surprise that some Golden Wings are reverse-engineered to get similar chassis and engine solutions.
Great Wall Motor's eight-cylinder motorcycle was born, and American cruising enthusiasts carnival!
The second model doesn't appear in the latest video, but spy shots taken last year show a very similar styling to the old Honda Rune. It also has a different chassis than a station wagon, with a longer lower position, and unlike the Rune, it uses a traditional telescopic fork.
Great Wall is well-pocketed (Wei himself is the 13th richest person in China, worth $12.2 billion, according to Forbes) and has vast R&D and manufacturing resources. While large sleeper eight-cylinder wagons and cruisers may not be civilian products, they are the ideal Halo product line and can immediately outperform other domestic competitors, many of whom have only recently begun to introduce their first four-cylinder motorcycles.
We'll be waiting to see where Great Wall Motor's motorcycle plans go.