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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127947
Other applications such as a sport tourer
may be forthcoming, but meanwhile all
Laverda sportbikes will continue using
the l8O-degree motor.
Benelli building success
As reported here some time ago, Benelli
is developing a new three-cylinder 900cc
superbike for launch - at least in prototype form - at the 1999 Milan Show.
Benelli' range of radical-looking scooters is having a sellout success ,in Italy and
doing well to provide the funds needed
to fulfill owner Andrea Merloni's ambition to build big Benelli bikes.
Chief engineer Riccardo Rosa (formerly in charge of the Cagiva 500cc GP and
MY Agusta F4 engine development) is
well-advanced on the fuel-injected Vthree DOHC 12-valve engine design,
which is reported to have ultrashortstroke dimensions aimed at delivering a
high rev ceiling and more power. The Vtlu:ee engine format will allow the engine
to be placed fu rther forward in the
ncould happen..,
Guzzi's possible acquisition of Bimota from SCM opens up a
fascinating dream scenario: the creation of the uLtimate wishmachine - a V-eight Moto Guzzi street bike! Don't reach for
your dleckbook yet - this is still strictly conjecture.
But still, here's the deal: SCM management bought a controlling interest in its Pesaro-based woodworking machinery
rivals Morbidelli five years ago, and tlley have now completed
an outright takeover of the firm. As part of the deal, they also
now own the rights to the Morbidelli V-eight motorcycle project which company founder Giancarlo Morbidelli - winner of
four GP World Championships in the 1980s with self-built
bikes bearing his own name - had developed and built in the
Pesaro factory, and which has since only ever been displayed in
public at woodworking-machinery exhibitions as a promotion
of the technological expertise of the Morbidelli/SCM group.
Morbidelli originally plarmed to build one bike a monili for
customers, and did in fact receive several orders, in spite of 'the
V-eight's steep price.
Now, however, it seems that none of the four bikes built so
far will ever find their way into customers' hands, because
SCM's new bosses have pulled the plug on the whole operation, and the V-eight bike project has been aborted. This leaves
Laverda's Tognon gone
!t was in the cards, and now it has happened: Former Laverda
boss Francesco Tognon, the ftalian one-time national rugby
football star and textile millionaire who rescued Laverda from
bankruptcy five years ago and set if on its present course, has
left the company "to pursue other business interests,"
Tognon, a Laverda enthusiast and active street rider who
sunk a vast amount of his time and money into turning the
company around, still retains a 5-percent share in the business,
with his friends the Brazza1i brothers continuing to hold 20 percent. But this means that the Spezzapria cousins whom Tognon
brought in as partners more than six months ago have now
effectively taken over Laverda, with Nadir Spezzapria in c1large
of day-to-day operations and. responsible for the significant
improvement in the production quality of Laverda's '98 model
range, which has been remarked upon around the world.
wheelbase so as to maximize forward
weight bias for improved grip and handling.
Ducati superbike successor
With the 916 now clqcking up five years
in production and starting to be discounted in showrooms around the world
as it loses its marketplace glamour compared to cheaper, newer rivals like the
Yamaha Rl, Ducati engineers are redoubling their efforts to fast-forward the next
generation of Bologna-built V-twins - not
all of th!!m necessarily desmos.
Recognizing the crucial importance of
the 916's successor, Ducati management
has decided to delay the launch of the
ST4 sport tourer - essentially a 916-powered otto va/vole version of the two-valve
ST2 - while it focuses attention on the
new superbike range. This means that
the only new models Ducati is likely to
launch at the Munich Show in September