Mid-Atlantic Motor cycle
The acclaimed relaunch of the historic Indian brand by Polaris has been one of the two-wheeled success stories of the past decade, in marking the latest chapter in 120 years of tribal turmoil representing the fortunes of America’s oldest and most historic motorcycle brand, ever since the Indian Motocyde (s/c) Company was founded back in 1901 in Springfield, Mass. This time around, Indian really is back for good, and posing a serious challenge to the two-wheeled supremacy of its two years younger Harley-Davidson rival.
But imagine shoehorning an engine into the rolling chassis of a modern Indian Chief, replacing its OHV motor with a smaller-capacity yet higher-performance powerplant aimed at securing bragging rights over Harley-Davidson. Unthinkable, surely? Yet that would be today’s equivalent of just what happened just over 70 years ago, when Indian combined with Britain’s illustrious Vincent marque in 1949 to create the one-and-only Vindian prototype.
The fact that Indian survived the Great Depression, which left only it and Harley still standing out of the twenty-plus American motorcycle manufacturers in 1920, was thanks to wealthy investor E. Paul DuPont, who bought the company in 1929. In his hands Indian matched Harley-Davidson for production volume and profitability throughout the 1930s, with 8883 bikes built in 1939,500 more than Harley. But after building 42,044 Indian Scouts for military use in WW2 – 9000 of them sent to Russia – the end of hostilities left Indian in no condition to resume its pre-war battle with Harley for market supremacy.
Indeed, its very survival was at risk, with a rundown factory and decrepit tooling worn out under the demands of the war effort, E. Paul DuPont in failing health, and renewed financial problems which meant few examples were built of the single model available, the pre-war flathead 74ci Chief with the large skirted fenders which had become a corporate trademark. The popular Scout was dropped from the line-up in 1945, a foolish decision which caused outrage among the returning GIs with money in their pockets and no
