Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Suzuki and supply start with S Suzuki's interest in expanding its role as engine suppliers to European manufacturers extends beyond its new deal with Cagiva to power the Zeta line, and existing arrangements to furnish Aprilia with the RSV250two-stroke motor powering the RS250 race replica, as well as Bimota with the TLlOOOR V-twin Superbike engine for the SB8R tha t just entered production. Negotiabons are currently under way with Laverda for a supply of TLlOOOS engines which the Italian firm's controlling Spezzapria family envisages using to expand the company's model range beyond the current 668cc/750cc parallel twin-cylinder lineup, most probably with a supersport tourer (with the accent on performance rather than pracbcaIity) and a TL-powered maxiroadster to rival the Cagiva Zeta-4. But according to Laverda executives, such projected new models won't come at the expense of the three-cylinder Jota 900cc/1200cc project, which remains on line for a p~oposed launch at lntermot in Septe~ber 2000, and which will power Laverda's entr.y into World Superbike racing in 2002. Nor is Suzuki the only company the Spezzaprias are in negotiations with regarding a possible collaboration. "It is true that Suzuki is one company that we're talking to," admits Laverda's commercial director, Aurelio Lolli, "but there are others, too, in both Japan and Europe, wh.o have approached us, offering commercial links which would include the supply of engines. But if we decide to make a deal - and at this stage, there's nothing concrete, just ideas - the engines would be tailored to Laverda's specifications, technically as well as cosmetically. However, it must be stressed that this is an option that we're exploring in order to expand our range. The existing 750cc twin-cylinder models and forthcoming 900/1200cc triple project would be unaffected by this, ·because we understand the importance of maintaining Laverda's traditions of producing our own such engines. But just as our neighbors at Aprilia buy engines from various sources to expand its range, so may we do though not to produce a four-cylinder 600cc Supersport model, as has also been rumored! Laverda could never comp'ete cost-effectively with the Japanese companies in this category, and we have no intention of trying." And as a former sales director of Bimota, producers of the Yamaha YZF600-engined YB9SRi, Lolli does have some experience in this area ... The mention of Apriba provides a' clue as to the identity of the European company Laverda·is embroiled in talks with - especially as the two factories are less than 100 miles apart. But as well as specifically denying any contacts with Ducati, or its TPG saviors in its own " right, Lolli also rejects claims attributed to Aprilia boss Ivana Beggio in the Italian press that Apriba has "reached an !!Ii outline agreement to acquire the LaverIIIIii da marque." III "This is not true," he says, "because .. Aprilia is only one of the companies ~ we're talking to, and nothing has been ii agreed." Q However, it's evident that Aprilia!s • RSV1000 60-degree V-twin engine is g: also under consideration by Laverda for ~ possible adoption in the company's pro~ posed expanded range. In the meanr" bme, Laverda's process of corporate ~ reorganization continues, with the Zanec( based company still under the control of 6 an administrator.while this is finalized. I Cagiva and Ducati go head to head . It's war! The relatmch of the Cagiva marque, with a range of new V-twin models to be unveiled later this year at September's Milan Show, has been given an added twist that will project the company that a decade ago was Italy's largest motorcycle manufacturer into a head-on confrontation with its former Ducati stablemate in the Castiglioni family's twowheeled empire. How? By targeting Ducati's best-selling models in its desmo lineup, the Monster family of bikes. The two new 90-degree V-twin Naked roadsters designed by Miguel Galluzzi in his recently completed high-tech CRC design center near Cagiva's Varese factory won't be powered by the air-cooled 80bhp Ducati 90055 desmodue motors that Cagiva currently buys from its former part~er to fit to its Gran .Canyon stn~et trailie - even though continued supplies of such motors are protected by a water- . tight contract, says Cagiva boss Claudio Castiglionf. Instead, the model range currently code-named "Zeta-4" wi.thin Cagiva will use Suzuki's fuel-injected, liquid-cooled, eight-valve TI1000S engine, in exactly the same 125-bhp guise as that iitted to the Japanese company's V-twin sportbike, fitted with the stock TLI000S engine-mano JOHN KEOGH Design '99 agement package. . What's more, Cagiva's contract with Caglva is getting an all-new bike - the Zeta-4 - ready to go head to head with the Ducati Suzuki fO.r the supply of the one-liter V- Monster. The Zeta will be powered by a Suzuki TL1OOOS engine and will be styled by twin motors calls for them to be painted Monster creator Miguel Galluzzi. according to the Italian company's specification and to be badged as CagJvas at the manufacturing stage, when producpromises to be a lot of motorcycle for the money, providing tion of the new bikes fitted with them begins early in 2000. Cagiva with a strong founda.tion for its commercial comeback Gall-uzzi's 21st-century answer to the commercial success of as well as Galluzzi with a sense of "mission accomplished." the aging but still good-selling Monster family he created seven Back in 1992, when the Argentinian designer produced the years ago, w~en Cagiva o~ed Dueall, will be av~~able ill tw? prototype Monster, he built it a~ound the fuel-injected d~smo distinct versIOns, each WIth the same d,sllncllve wa vy-Iine quattro.851 superbike engine - oilly for Ducall bosses to InsIst tubular-steel space frame, fitted with upside-down forks and a this be ditched for the production version, in favor of using up rear monoshock, both specially developed by Marzocchl for the surplus of less-potent air-cooled, two-valve desmo engines Cagiva's new V-twin range, as well as big 320mm Brembo tWill the factory was then producing! front discs. "We've taken a good look into Cagiva's future," says Miguel One of the new Z bikes is a traditional-looking street rod, GalluZzi, "and have realized we shouldn't focus anymore on with a round headlamp and relatively conventional neo-Mon- building small-capacity bikes for the Playstation generation, so ster styling (per John Keogh's drawing showing how the bike is much as establish.ing Cagiva as a large-bike manufacturer likely to appear). The other is much more avant-garde, even which produces innovative models with Italian flair. When y.ou radical-looking, to be sold alongside the standard model at add in the reliability and performance at an affordable pnc~ around a lll-percent premium in sticker price. which the use of Japanese engines from a company like S~zuki But, given that Claudio Castiglioni is aiming to sell the retro- permits, you have the best of both worlds, and that's wh?t look venioln of his new Suzuki-powered sport-roadster at the we're aiming to deliver to our customers around the world m _ pric;e as Dua!ti's much less potent M900 Monster, that still the new.milleniurn." However, production continues as normal, says Lolli, and in fact this year is set to increase 15 percent over 1998, to around 2250 units - all twins. ApriliaoDavidson? Aprilia itself has taken the first steps to' increase motorcycle production substantially over and above the 10,000 bikes it built in 1998 (plus 300,000 scooters!), with manufactilre of the RSV Mille now fully under way. However, deliveries have not yet begun of the heavily revised, limited. edition (only 150 units) SP version launched at the Bologna Show last December, fitted with its Cosworthdeveloped ultra-short-stroke engine tha t provides the basis for the Mille's World Superbike homologation, with delays in component deliveries from outside suppliers cited as the official excuse. That, however, places a question mark over the legitimacy of the singleton works bike being campaigned in the World Superbike Championship this season by Australian Peter Goddard, who took it to an encouraging seventh-place finish first time out at Kyalami, since the stock Mille's 97 x 67.5=/ 998cc engine format differs from the SF's 100 x 63.4mm/996cc lay- out, and therefore can't be used to homologa te the SP version for racing on which the works Superbike is presumably based. Of course, it's possible that Aprilia has had 150 near-complete units of the SP Mille sitting in the Italian firm's Noale factory waiting for missing parts since before the March 1 World Superbike homologation deadline - and that the FIM has approved the bike on this basis. A more likely scenario, however, is that all concerned with the World Superb ike series - including rival teams - are so pleased to see another manufacturer join the fold (especially such a significant player in the rival Grand Prix scene as Aprilia) that they've simply turned a collective blind eye to the presence of what is effectively a prototype! Maybe they got the idea from Harley-Davidson and the VR1000... _ Aprilia is on line to substantially expand its V-twin model lineup at the Milan Show in September, with a sporttouring version of the RSVI000 slated to appear, alongside a naked roadster that will go head to head with the new Cagiva Z4 models as well as the Voxan Roadster for fuel-injected, eight-valve street-rod supremacy. lPG's Ducati windfall Ducati is now a publicly owned company.. after the March 24 flotation. on the New York and Italian stock exchanges of the Italian marque by its Texas Pacific Group and Deutsche Morgen Grenfell owners, who purchased it from the Castiglioni family's Cagiva Group 2 1/2 years ago. The over-subscribed $285 million share offering placed 66 percent of the company's equity in the hands of outside investors (including 1 percent of tha t total offered at a IS-percent discount to Ducati employees), with TPG/DMG retaining 34 percent. The flotation netted TPG investors an apparent $112 million cash profit from their 30 months' control of the company, during which they turned the nearbankrupt opera tion . around and increased. production to 28,'011 bikes in 1998, as well as regaining the World Superbike 'Championship through Britain's Carl Fogarty - bu.t it also raised $54 million of capital for Ducati itself, which will be used to repay debt and for the development of new models. TI10ugh the new Ducati shares spluttered through their first day of trade, closing down 0.6 percent in a market made nervous by the imminent NATO

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