Jim Feuling

With all of this talk of the Hayabusa V8, I neglected to mention the Feuling W3. Jim Feuling, who passed away in 2002, was a prolific inventor and engineer. I first noticed him back around 1990 or so when he developed 4 valve heads for the Harley Davidson Evo engine. I thought of him again the other day when I saw the rerun of a Biker Build Off episode where Cory Ness built his chopper using a Feuling W3 engine. It's impressive to say the least and is one indicator of the kind of work Jim Feuling did. Jim was pretty amazing. He built an Oldsmobile 4 cylinder engine that developed over 1,270 hp from 121 cubic inches! Not bad, I'd say. The East Coast Timing Association has a reprint of his memorial from the now closed Feuling website. A few of Jim's developments are:

the engine for the American Honda high-mileage streamliner, capable of 500 MPG @ 55 mph, and developed the engine for the 2-place Q-2 aircraft, rated the world's most efficient. His internationally-recognized products include the 4-Valve cylinder head conversion for Harley-Davidson® Evolution motorcycles, his patented aluminum CENTERFIRE® cylinder heads for Chevrolet 454 and Ford 460 truck engines, the all new 'Fast-Burn' MAXFLOW® cylinder head kits, SuperPump and HP+ lifters for the Harley-Davidson Twin Cam engines and the awesome W3 Motorcycle

Read the whole thing. There's also a review of his prototype W3 from Motorcycle Cruiser magazine.

When you see what he did over the years, you can only wonder what he would have done had he lived a little longer and had access to the ever improving computer software and machine tools.

His company was up for sale last year. I'm not sure what happened to it, it seems some parts were sold separately instead of as a complete operation. I wonder if anyone is making the W3 these days. I'll have to look into it. If anyone has details of the fate of his company, let us know.