Confederate Motorcycles

Confederate Motors was founded on April 2, 1991, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by former trial lawyer Matt Chambers, who set out to build American motorcycles as design-driven, heirloom-quality machines rather than mass-produced products. The company delivered its first production model in 1994, filed for bankruptcy in 2002, and relocated to Birmingham, Alabama after Hurricane Katrina struck its New Orleans-area operations in 2005. Confederate became known for radical, sculptural V-twins such as the Hellcat, Wraith, and F-131 Fighter, built in very small numbers for a wealthy niche clientele. In 2017 the company announced a shift to all-electric motorcycles and a rename to Curtiss Motorcycles in partnership with Zero Motorcycles. Separately, in 2017 Florida attorney and investor Ernest Lee acquired the earlier Confederate branding, legacy designs, and inventory; in June 2020, amid nationwide reconsideration of Confederate imagery, that business was renamed Combat Motors, and continues to sell and service the F-117 Combat Fighter, P-51 Combat Fighter, FA-13 Combat Bomber, and B-120 Wraith models inherited from Confederate.