The TMC Dumont might just be the coolest motorcycle ever – and it really has to be seen to be believed.
The futuristic beast may look like something that came straight out of Tron or The Fifth Element, but it’s legit, and even though it’s officially just a concept, it’s a pretty impressive piece of engineering.
There’s so much going on with this bike that it’s hard to know where to begin. For starters, the wheels are just about as stripped-down as it gets; they’ve got 36in rims, they’re basically spokeless, and the tires sit so close to the ground that it looks like the driver is risking some major friction burns if he comes across a speedbump.
Luckily, the guy who created the Dumont just so happens to also be a Formula One racing driver, so he’s pretty used to driving by the seat of his pants.
Tarso Marques, who has spent much of his post-F1 life creating similarly crazy concept motorcycles, took seven months to build the TMC Dumont before showcasing it at the 2018 Daytona Beach Week Bike Show, where it won Best in Show.
Rather than settle for a 500cc engine, Marques has also taken the absolutely insane step of picking up an actual airplane engine to power his ride. Yep, that’s an actual retro 1960s Rolls Royce V6 he’s sitting behind, and it makes some serious noise.
Marques says it took him 15 years to source the perfect engine for the bike, ‘The TMC Dumont deserved something really unique and powerful, and with a great sound and look. A normal motor would be so boring.’
Marques isn’t the first petrolhead to stick an aircraft engine under the hood. Jay Leno famously switched the engine in his 1934 Rolls Royce out for a Merlin V12 – the Rolls-Royce engine originally used to power Spitfires in World War Two.
The TMS Dumont is named after Alberto Santos-Dumont, an aviation pioneer from Marques’s native Brazil.
It’s fair to say bloggers were pretty impressed – if not a bit confused – by the bike. ‘It’s impractical, it’s ambitious, and I think it’s awesome to see a crazy concept brought to life and actually ridden,’ read one review.
Sure, no one is entirely sure how this thing actually works, but let’s not get caught up in the technicalities here.
Everyone in the Big Bang Theory look so young in this photo.
This The Big Bang Theory photo contains business suit. There might also be dress suit, full dress, tailcoat, tail coat, tails, white tie, white tie and tails, suit, and suit of clothes.
