Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EUROFILE BYALANC ATHCART MV Agusta lives . It's confirmed! As exclusively previewed in this col umn last mon th, Cagiva boss Cl audi o Castiglioni has indeed d ecid ed to relaunch the legendary MV Ag usta mo torcyd e marque tha t he acquired back in 1991 and has kept in cold sto rage ever since. After the 2o-year absence of Italy's most his tori c nam e from the motorcycle scene, the winner of 3ll World Championship GP rider titles an d 37 ma nufacturer's world crowns, Cagiva's new four-cylinder superbike, the F4, will be badged as an MY Agosta w he n it's lau nched at the Milan Show, which opens on September IS. And as proof, here's a copy of the official factory d rawing of the new bike, which IS set to be u nveiled in a preshow presentation - possibly at the Monza race tra ck - by former MV Ago sta multitime Wo rld Cha mpion. Giacomo Agostini. . . . , Originally conceived back in 1989 as a spinoff from the C~stighom brothers friendship wit h Enzo Ferrari's so n Piero, the MY Ago sta F4 wil l have see n man y changes in its speci fications befo re it enters prod uction in Ca~iva's new Cassinetta factory next sp ring. Ferrari' s origi nal involvem en t in prod u cm~ t~e ultr3compa.ct, Ma relli fue l-injected , DO HC in-line four-cylinder engine was hrmt ed to the ~Im der-head design, w hich, however, still reta ins the 16-valve rad ial format origina lly chosen by Ferra ri Engineering tha t reflect ed the Italian company' s Formula O ne race-car-engi ne layout of the time. Variable va lve tim ing wa s experimented with , the n dropped . an d a five-valve-per-cy linder ve rsio n, as used in mid -'90s Ferrari The Aprilia-Cosworth connectjon Alo ngside d etails about the 750cc superbike s u p posed ly being devel oped b y former Form ula One /lndycar cha m p io ns March, based in Engl an d (which now hin g es on w hen - or if? - engi ne designer Al Melling produces th e all- . new four-cylinder engine that the cycle pa rts have been awaiting for al most a yea r), and the Mod enas V-three GP bik e d esigned and bu ilt for Kenny Robe rts at nea rb y Ba nbu r y b y TWR (w h o se Arrows-Yama ha came so close to pro· viding former bi ke racer and rei g ning Formula One Wo rld Ch ampion Damon Hill with the team's debut GP victory in Hu ngary on A ugust 3), comes news o f a cl o s er link between March /TWR ' s N ortham p ton- base d n eigh bors Cosworth and Italy' s Aprilia, Formu la On e motors, wa s also consid - r-, 0\ 0\ .... c5 .... .... aJ ...c E aJ ..... 0.. aJ Cfl 4 ered , bu t never pu t into metal. A t one tim e, the engine ran with th e cylinder head reversed (EA tru mpets facing forwa rd for a ram -ai r effect), but tha t layo o t wa s o n ly co ns id er ed u n til the importa nce o f airboxes beca me apparent, at which point the flipped-head id ea was r e jec ted be caus e of th e d ifficult y o f installing an airbox in front of the engine. At t he sa me time, a st aggered-bore layout to produce an even more com pact eng ine d esign (effectively a narrow-an gle V-fou r) was also scra pped, w hile jus t last year the o rigina l dry-sump 'd esig n was converted to the wet-sump form in wh ich it will en ter prod uction. The F4's cen tral cam cha in is the only clue that betrays its stru ng -ou t d evelopmen t cycle, but in eve ry other way this is a ben chmark fou r-cylinder d esign that even includes an ex tractab le, side-loading six-s peed g e a rbo x i n street form as a mark o f its race-track lineage . At 73.8 x 43.8mm in 750cc guise (a 900cc version Caglva has revived the MV Agu sta name has been d ev eloped in par allel, for lat er lor Its F4 superblke, Which witllinatly be introduction on a range of bikes whic h officially shown at the Milan show mid· w ill share the Cagiv a a nd MV nam es, september. Though the factory's d epending o n the mod el), the F4 has an illustration of the model coyly doesn't ultr ash ort-st rok e layout allowing lots of reveal the front of the fairing. expect an r e vs - over 15 ,500 rpm in ra ce fo rm , unusual design sporting four 14,OOO-pl us for the street - com pa red to heact.lamps. the most oversquare of cu rren t Japanese fou r-cylinder su pe rbi kes, the Kawasaki ZX /7 R a t 73 x 44.7m m . Yet in s pite of havin g the same short stroke as th e 600cc Kawasak i ZX6R, the new MV Agus ta engi ne has the same width across the cran kcase as the 750cc Kawasa ki, and IS actually na rrower across the cylinder head. The Italian s have turned the tables on the tradi tiona l Japanese fascination wi th miniaturization! In the past five years, the F4 has covered thou sands of test miles in various chas sis clothed in different bod ywork, d isguised in tu rn to look like a kind o f jum bo 125cc Mito, a four-stro ke 500cc Cag iva GP bike, and ultima tely a 916 Ducati . These at firs t USN a d cltabox twin-spar alloy fra me before the final, Massimo Tambu rinid es igned tu bu la r-steel chassis was com pleted (featu ring a monobraccia cast-alloy swi ngarm similar to the one used on the 916, bu t of a somewha t d ee per cross-section ). With its four -cylinder engine unly IOmm wider tha n a desmo V-twtn, th e F4. ma y look supe rficia lly simi lar in the factory drawing to the same d esign er' s £Mean, ~>Ut the two bikes are very d ifferent in the metal - especially after Tamburini, havi ng com pleted wo rk on wh at he thought woul d carry a Cagiva badge, decided bac k 10 May tha t he'd ha ve to start over again if the bik e was to be called an MV Agusta: It's sig nifican t tha t the factory drawing only shows the rear three-q uarter view: Ta mburi ni' s design for the "face" of the MV is u nd erstood to reflect the fact that the F4 has a four-cylinder engine, by incorporating fou r head larn ps in to the nose o f the fairing - twice as many as his V-twin 916, and one better, as well, than the three headlamps inco rpo ra ted int o the s ty ling of th e rival Al'rilia RSVI OOO V-twm Su perbi ke, co mpeting with the MV Ag usta F4 for star billing a t Milan. Forget engine pe rformance, or handling: It's the d es igner battle of the he adlamps th at reall y coun ts... However distant the Ferrari connection, it is indeed tru e that the new MY Ago sta F4 represents an unlikely union between the ca r and motorcycl e world 's two mo st legendary marques: At the relatively humble premium represented by the F4's projected 40-m illio n-lir e price tag , it's h kely th e new MV Agusta will be backordered for years, irr espective of how quickly it ach ieves the World Superbike racing success that Castiglion i has his eyes on. However, the new bike won't be the first time that Cagiva has collabo rated wi th Ferrari on a custome r vehicl e. Back In the late '80s, the special flat-plane versions of the V-eight Ferrari eng ine installed in the Lancia Thoma 8.32 executive expres s sedan were man ufactured by Cagiva on be half of Ferrari - but in the Duca ti factory. Now lik ely to pla y seco nd fiddl e at th e Milan Show to its bitter rival Cagiva ' s revival o f the MV Agusta na me is the long-awai ted d ebu t of Aprilia's fuelinjected RSVIOOO V-twi n s upe rb ike, p owered by t he Rota x- d es ig n ed 60degree V-twin otto valvole engine. Ap rilia had to wa it u n til th e Bri ti s h r aceeng ine gurus of Coswo rt h managed to extract th e 160-plus bh p deeme d to be necessary for the RSV to be com pe titive at the World Superbike level before the bike would en ter p rod u ction. But, car lie r t h is yea r, C oswo rt h achieved thi s goa l, and the Apri lia will now go on sale in the 1998 mo d el year. However, as revea led here last mon th, Aprilia wo n 't b e co n d uc ting a fu ll assa ult on the Wo rld Superbike Cha m pi onship seaso n in ' 98, co nce n tra ting in st ead on develo p men t fo r a fu ll-o n attack in 1999. H owev er, word is th a t while Aprilia's long time engine su pplier; Ro tax, will manufacture th e s treet RSVl OOO motors, Coswort h is buildi ng a batch of 50 V-twin race engi nes for the Italian com pa ny and its selected privatee r cu stomers, and wi ll effectively act as Ap rilia 's partner in the research and d e velopment o f th e V-twin moto r' s competitio n version - including the projected 750cc su pe rs po rr version plan ned for 1999. This ties in well with w ha t is likelv to be April ia's ma in development ta;gt!t fo r th e new bike: participation in the 1998 British Superbike Championsh ip , wh ich, wi th Britai n's boo min g eco nomy, has now tak en ove r from German y's Pro Su perbike as Euro pe 's top four-s troke race serie s. Aprilia's British importe r has alrea dy co nfirmed it w ill be racing the RSV1000 in the British series next yea r with fo rme r British 600ce Su pers po rt Champion Mike Edwards as th e likely rid er - and the Italian factory is certain to m ake u s e of th is to fa st-fo r ward d evelo pment in co nju nc tio n w it h its British raee-en gin e su p plier, Cos wo rth. M uzzi enlists Ricardo aloG But tha t' s not the o nly British co nnection a n Itali an bi ke factory is fo rging rig ht now - for wo rd is that Ricard o, the Brigh ton-based R&D specialist used by ma ny car and so me bike manufacturers from all ove r the world to dev elop new products from th e ground u p, has been contrac ted by Moto Guzzi to d eliver the new-genera tio n tra ns ve rs e V-twi n engine scheduled to power th e products of the Ma nd ell o fac to ry in to th e next m iJIeniu m. Wor kin g to an o ve rall forma t determ ined by Guzzi chief engineer Angelo Ferrari - in sp ite of his sur name, a fo r me r La m bo rgh in i an d Bu gatt i d e vel opment e ngi n ee r w ho h a s ha d four-w heel d eali ngs with Ricard o befo re - the Bri tish d esign company is hard at wo rk o n th e na rrow te r j-a ng le liq u id co o led overhead-ca m V-t w in eng ine wh ose existence was reveal ed in Euro File a year ag o. The d esign brief on this has chang ed sligh tly, inasmuch as what was o rig inally co nceived as a per forma nce engine fur su perbike racing must now feature a basic d esign format capabl e of em b raci ng a va rie ty of e ng ine ca pacities from 750 to 1200cc, s haft or cha in fin a l drive, a nd a five- o r si xspeed gea rbox . However, Guzzi is likely to s tandardiz e fue l injection o n all models w hich employ it, and it's probable thou gh not confirmed - tha t all versions w ill have chain-d rive n DOHC fo u rvalv e cyli nder head s, ev en the Ca liforn ia cus to m tourer a nd the U.S.-style cru iser wi th whi ch Gu zzi is planning a majo r attac k on the American mar ket in the year 2000. And more... Th e Brit is h -based , It al ian-fi n an ced Benetton Formula One team (ironically lo cated righ t next door to Ma rch , in Bices te r) twice won the Formula O ne World tit le wit h Michael Schuma ch er before he joined Ferrari, but is now ru mored to be up for sale, as the Italian fas hio n ma nufactu rer looks for o ther p romotional alterna tives. Con trary to expec ta tions (and in sp ite of the fact that Luciano Ben etton, so n of th e fou nd er, is a ke en biker w h o ha s tested Mick Doo ha n's NSR500 Ho nd a), Benetton has not yet capitalized on the cu rre n t boo m in Eu ro pea n mo tor cycle sa les - much of it fashion-led - and mad e its big move int o tw o-wheeled spo nsor· s hi p , th o u g h i t ha s ba cked Ukawa ' s works NSR250 Hond a in GP racing wi th w ha t is believed to be a rela tively sma llbudget involvemen t. No w, however, all that may cha nge : Bene tton is understood to be planning a ma jor inves tmen t in World Superbike racing from 1999 onward - by sponsori ng th e facto ry Laverda tea m du e to . make its debut in that yea r wi th the new DOHC fuel-i nj ected Iota 9 00 tr iple sched uled to be launched at the Munich Show in September 1998. Thou gh nei ther Laverda nor Benetton wi ll comment on the possible alliance, there are good reasons w hy the ru m o r linki ng them mav be true. Both companies are based in the same Vene to reg ion of northeast Ita ly, headqu artered less than 100 miles from each other , a nd Lave rd a boss Fra ncesco T ogno n 's fa mily fo rt un e co mes from the clothi ng and texti le ind ustry, in which both the Tognon and Benetton families alread y ha ve an existing business relationship. For this to be exte nded into a jo int ven tu re targeting World Su perbike s ucc ess would be a

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