Bennett’s Performance Builds An S&S Tribute | WILD FILE

S&S; Cycles rose to prominence in the 1990s as the go-to engine supplier for the clone cruiser industry, but the LaCrosse, Wisconsin-based company actually started manufacturing Harley-Davidson hop-up parts back in the ’50s. Founders George Smith Sr. and Stanley Stankos built a reputation by winning hundreds of drag races and setting countless speed records on hot-rodded Harleys. It was this go-fast legacy that SoCal’s Bennett’s Performance honored in building this dragster-inspired custom to celebrate S&S’s 50th Anniversary.

Dubbed the G1, this long-and-low racer looks like a smoother, sleeker version of what Smith would have used to burn up the old U.S. 30 Drag Strip a half-century ago. The foundation is a Kenny Boyce Pro Street frame, fitted with race-ready Works Performance suspension, a lightweight D&D aluminum tank and drag-spec Performance Machine wheels. The heart and soul is a massive, 124-cubic-inch (2032cc) S&S T-Series, twin-cam, air-cooled V-twin, tuned using many of the same tricks and components that helped Bennett’s set a 192-mph speed record at Bonneville. The G1 cuts right to the core of S&S’s racing heritage, and George Smith would no doubt be proud to see his name lettered beneath its windscreen.