Ask the Editors: American-Made 450 Race Quad?
From the sounds of it, we’d guess you were speaking of US Highland. These guys were on the fast track to becoming a force in US off-road vehicle manufacturing with their 33,000 square-foot factory opening in Tulsa, OK on June 1, 2010.
Tragically, the company’s founder (Mats Malmberg) and two of the company’s executives perished in a plane crash on July 10th of that same year.
Severely wounded by the loss, the company did what it could to keep striving forward and though they never officially announced that they were closing up shop, the lack of machines to ever leave the factory coupled to the fact that their official website (http://www.ushighland.com/) has been suspended since shortly thereafter aren’t very encouraging signs.
The performance ATV looked to be a force to be wrecked with, though. Equipped with a fuel injected 450cc engine, carbon fiber exhaust system, nerf bars, Pro Taper bars, race tires, MX-width A-arms/ axle and Elka suspension all around, it was clear the machine came ready to shred the track.
There was also talk of their plans to create an ATV sport model utilizing their potent 100-horsepower V-twin street bike engine.
Sadly fate and circumstance have made the US Highland operation a “what could have been” rather than “what was”. Pics run on various sites and in print magazines at the time prove that there were at least some prototypes created. Perhaps they are still out there, somewhere, waiting to inspire a future investor.
