RETROGRADE ENGINEERED BY ICON 1000BRAND NEW JACK
It's not often the ICON crew gets fresh meat.
Our usual meals consist of antiquated metal served with a healthy dose of aged mechanicals. Not that we're complaining, ours is an acquired diet, but one we find quite flavorful. Such was not the case with Brand New Jack. She is a fresh dish of 2020 Katana served up by some of our favorite chefs at Suzuki USA.
Like any build, it starts with the concept.
In this case, an affinity for Gobots, Gundam, and the tight cybergirls of Robotech was pulled from our pubescent id and slung face-first at the Kat. Most of it stuck, and what didn't was quickly cleaned up with a damp mop. The Katana, both then and now, has always been a starship. Our goal was to up the uber-mechanized facade of the new Katana into full transformer. Let's face it, who doesn't want their literbike to evolve into a flying robot lion at the touch of a button?
Twin endurance racing fuel ports, premium Nitron suspension, solid EBC rotors, Avon competition tires, and custom exhaust fitted from various Leo Vince components. Driven racing And Magura supplied the hand controls for a much-improved feel over the stock setup. The wheels, from the hallowed ICON stash of one-offs and never-wheres, are forged Galespeed units smuggled from Japan during the great magnesium embargo of ‘02.
ENTERING IT‘S REVENGE ARC
It started with a tooth-laden grin. Brand New Jack was destined for battle rather than becoming a statue for tourists to gawk at. It’s shining armor was stripped away in place of slobber and teeth, a newtype of shell to protect it from 4-wheeled predators. It needed to become fierce… wild… It needed to become MANIK!
BATTLE OF THE BEASTS
We sent three combatants off to a Californian desert to wage asphalt war and push the boundaries of cross-platform drift competition—the prize - street cred. Slathered with toothy Manik’r graphics, the Katana goes head to head with drift junkies Dinosaur Dan and Brandon… just Brandon. High speeds and tight pursuits take them to the edge of catastrophe. Which one of them has the chops to stand alone as the victor?
