PRECIOUS METAL: CONFEDERATE FA-13 COMBAT BOMBER

All good things must come to an end, and Confederate Motors Inc. recently built its last-ever V-twin, thus marking an end to 23 years of iconoclastic innovation, ever since the first Confederate Hellcat rolled out of the company’s Louisiana factory on November 11, 1994.

From January 2018 onwards this maker of unique motorcycles has changed its name and abandoned the use of internal combustion engines in its products. The company which today is based in Birmingham, Alabama, after being expelled from its New Orleans home by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, will henceforth be known as the Curtiss Motorcycle Co, named after the legendary American motorcycling and aviation pioneer Glenn H Curtiss.

But whereas Confederate’s various models have hitherto all featured muscular engines that were as loud in action as they looked likely to be at rest, the born-again Curtiss brand’s bikes will waft along to the sound of silence. They’ll be powered by electric motors made by California’s Zero Motorcycles.

The move to terminate use of the Confederate nametag comes amid the current widespread American re-evaluation of symbols linked to the Civil War Confederacy, although preparations to ditch the name preceded that, having been in the planning for the past two years and more.

So, it’s goodbye to Confederate and hello to Curtiss – but Confederate ain’t going quietly. For ever since that first Hellcat, Confederate models have all been named after US warplanes, and the final limited edition series of 13 motorcycles carries the name of the biggest such bird yet, the FA-13 Combat Bomber. Reflecting this, as well as their rarity,