Rightly or wrongly, it is often assumed that Chinese motorcycles are copies – sometimes even imitations – of well-known and established models. And while this is true in many cases, there are some motorcycles made in China that aim to innovate.
A new touring machine from the automotive giant Great Wall Motors (GWM) seems to be the perfect example of this.
GWM is seriously committed to entering the motorcycle market. They have even created a new subsidiary called Great Wall Souo Motorcycle. And they have a quite challenging concept as their debut model. Something with eight cylinders.
At the moment, the motorcycle does not have a name yet, but it is intended to be a grand-tourer similar to the Honda Gold Wing – but even larger. For some reason, someone in China thought that a six-cylinder, 1,833cc engine was too small. The solution? An eight-cylinder boxer engine. And although the exact displacement has not been revealed yet, it is expected to be over 2,000 cc.
This information was revealed by GWM’s Chief Design Officer, Andrew Dyson, during a company conference that highlighted the brand’s plans for the future. Having worked in the automotive industry, Dyson previously worked with Volkswagen, Daimler-Chrysler, and Opel.
As for the motorcycle itself, we still don’t know what kind of technology and features it will have; we only have a silhouette to guide us. However, it is evident that it is a luxury motorcycle, with its aerodynamic fairing giving impressions of a cruiser/tourer similar to the Honda Gold Wing or the BMW K 1600. Therefore, in true Chinese fashion, we can expect this machine to be equipped with all technological devices – maybe even with the latest adaptive cruise control that we see in top tourers.
That being said, the question remains: do we really need an eight-cylinder grand tourer?
