Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Eurofi Ie " BY ALAN CATHCART AII·new Morini? In the year that it's been possible to buy an MV Agusta for the fUst time in 20 years, another of Italy's lost legends is following suit and is in the process of being reborn: Morini. Founded in 1937 by Alfonso Morini and based in the same suburb of Bologna as Ducati, Mota Morini was always - even by Italian standards - a small though prestigious family concern, but with a sporting flair to its products. The most famous of these was the bike famed as the world's fastest four-stroke single - the 12,000rpm dohc 250cc GP racer with which, in 1963, Tarquinio Provini came within an ace of wrestling the World Championship from the phalanx of four-cylinder Hondas led by Jim Redman. By then Morini had established a loyal following for its small-capacity 125/175cc street singles, such as the Settebello and Corsaro, and Giacomo Agostini had begun his racing career on a Morini, attracting the attention of Count Agusta by winning the 1964 Italian 250cc title on one, before switching to the far wealthier MV team. By the time he died in 1969, Alfonso Morini could be well satisfied with a lifetime of two-wheeled achievement. Mota Morini was taken over on his death by Alfonso's daughter Gabriella, who wisely diversified the company's model line upward by introducing the family of bikes powered by the distinctive Heron-headed n-degree V-twin engine developed by chief en-gineer Franco Lambertini in 1973, first in 350cc form with the Strada, then later in 500cc and 250cc guise. More than 85,000 of these individually designed motorcycles were built over the next two decades, bringing Morini a loyal following around the world. As the first production four-strokes from any manufacturer to be fitted with electronic ignition, toothed-belt camshaft drive and a sixspeed gearbox, they also represented an engineering benchmark. Unfortunately, though profitable, Morini's small production volume (around 10,000 bikes a year in the company's heyday) wasn't capable of generating enough capital for the rising costs of developing a new range of bikes, and after an abortive attempt to produce a 500cc Turbo version of the V-twin, Gabriella Morini sold the company to Cagiva in 1987. As die-hard race enthusiasts, the Castiglioni brothers couldn't Chronicling alegacy Honda's V4 four-stroke engine layout has become as much the technical signature of the Japanese giant as the desmo Vtwin format has for Ducati and two decades on from the debut of the first Honda V4 in NRSOO oval-piston guise at the 1979 British GP, it is timely that Julian Ryder has set down in print the definitive story of the most distinctive Japanese fourcylinder family, in a new Haynes Publishing book "Honda's VForce" (ISBN no. 1-85%0-421-8). Ryder'S years as magazine editor, TV commentator, World Endurance pundit and World Superbike insider make him ideally qualified to write this book, and his fast-paced yet informative style makes it an enjoyable read. He recounts the interwoven stories of the three distinct strands of V4 development - the oval-piston family in both 500 and 750cc guise, the 4 Voxan coming online A company that has now achieved a successful start-up of production is France's Voxan, with the manufacture of its Roadster 1000 model designed by former Bimota stylist Sacha Lakic and powered by Voxan's own fuel-injected dohc 72degree V-twin eight-valve engine now in full £low. This was recently marked by two high-profile events held in the Paris region - one a rally of Voxan's new owners held in front of 20,000 spectators at the massive Coupes Moto Legende historic spectacular at the banked Montlhery race track south of the French capital - and the other the presentation of one Voxan bike to French President Jacques Chirac, at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace at which Chirac (himself a former biker, albeit in the distant past) threw a careful leg over the bike that may single-handedly recreate the French motorcycle industry. It seems the Roadster presented to Le President by Voxan principal Jacques Gardette and sales director Marc Fontan has been assigned for evaluation by the Presidential Guard: This may have the hoped-for benefit of bringing Voxan an order to equip 'the riders carrying out escort duties for Jolly Jacques - but it might lead a much harder life, too. See, several of the Prez's dispatch riders are serious 'motards' who structure presidential duties aroulld competing resist the chance to acquire such a historic marque, particularly after having bought its Ducati neighbors just two years earlier and especially when it came with a prime piece of real estate attached, in the form of the Mota Morini factory in the midst of a prime Bologna residential area. After installing former Ducati boss Mario Scandellari to run the company, they commissioned their newly acquired design guru, Massimo Tamburini (who of course has since gone on to create the Ducati 916 and now the MY Agusta F4 for Cagiva), to produce a modern sportbike addition to the V-twin Morini family. The machine duly arrived in 1988 in the form of the fulIy-faired Dart, closely modeled on the Ducati Paso and 125cc Cagiva Freccia from the same designer. However, though the Excalibur custom range continued to sell well, the Dart's push rod air-cooled engine was perceived as too archaic to appeal to the sportbike customer, and although Lambertini already had its successor up and running on the dyno in the form of a in the Le Mans 24 Hours and Bol d'Or endurance events in their time off - or, in the case of one of them, Marc Granie, racing in the Isle of Man TT. Voxan may get some unexpectedly in-depth test feedback from the presidential Roadster's riders all of which should stand it in good stead for the debut of the next model, the Cafe Racer, due to kick off production in July. Start-up of the third model already launched, the Scrambler, has been deferred to the autuIrin - by which time Voxan will already have launched two further new models at the Paris show at the end of September, one a sports tourer and the other aimed at the custom market. Export sales are still set to begin in 2000, with Britain and Germany targeted as the French firm's two debut markets. liquid-cooled nocc 67-degree V-twin 'otto valvole' of advanced design, the rival Ducati faction in the Cagiva empire headed by Massimo Bordi ensured that all of the Cagiva development budget was directed toward their rival 'desmoquattro' design. Starved of funds, the new Morini V-twin motor died off. Lambertini went off to Piaggio to work on scooter engines, and the factory was sold for housing redevelopment (netting a tidy profit for Cagiva, which helped refuel Ducati's comeback). Morini struggled on for a couple of years as Cagiva's notional custombike division - and then production gradually petered out, with no new Morinis buiJ t since 1992. TPG's acquisition of Ducati from Cagiva at the end of 1996 brought Morini with it, but it is only now, in the wake of Ducati's publi.c flotation, that the company's new management has found a buyer for the' marque they ended up. owning almost by default - and one moreover with a family connection. A key member of the the roster of ROO and RC45 Superbikes and the RVF TTl racers that gave rise to them, and the succession of V4 street bikes which underpinned the evolution of the racing line - warts and all. This includes such episodes as the so-called "Great Camshaft Crisis" of the early road bikes a nd the civil war between riders Dunlop and Marshall en route to the World Formula One title - but Ryder also recounts the inside story of the development of the legendary RC30 Superbike and its RC45 successor, right up to (but, perhap fortuituously, not including) the ill-starred finale to the '9 World Superbike series at Sugo. Full of insider nuggets and sharp observation, this book deta'ils Honda's intent to carve out an individual niche in modern four-stroke motorcycle technology, and it's a must-have addition to any Superbike enthusiast's library. Only one thing: Having done such a good job on the Honda V4, what subject's next on the Ryder roster? This book makes you hope there will be more. Bologna-based motorcycle-industry suppliers, Morini Franco Motori was founded in 1957 by Alfonso Morini's nephew Franco, who, after working with his uncle for a couple of years, split away to start his own engine-supply company in partnership with his colleague Vittorio MinarelJi. In ]a te '56 the two partners split up, but since then their two companies have furnished millions of two-stroke engines for the huge range of Italian scooter and moped manufacturers. Franco Morini built 80,000 engines in 1998, principally for use in Malaguti and Italjet products, and also worked with Bimota as a sub-contractor to manufacture the troubled 500 Vdue's direct-injection V-twin two-stroke engine. Like every other engine supplier, Morini is also developing a four-stroke 125/250cc single-cylinder four-valve .engine range for scooter application under the direction of former Mota Morini chief engineer Franco Lambertini, who joined the company from Piaggio two years ago. ow Lambertini is hard at work developing a new range of Morini motorcycles, and scooters - the first-ever complete two-wheelers that Morini Franco Motori has ever built. Having decided to become manufacturers in their own right rather than merely engine suppliers, it made sense for the company's management to use a historic name that is all but their own hence the deal with Ducati announced on Apri128. "We're hard at work on an all-new range of products that we'll launch at the Milan show in September," Lambertini said. "One of these will be a motorcycle which I'm sure Morini enthusiasts will deem worthy of the name!" Hmmm - not a 67-degree V-twin 600/750cc sports cruiser, by any chance? We'll have to wait till September to find out - but with Ducati's 600cc Monster being the best-selling motorcycle of any kind from any manufacturer in Italy for the past two years, don't bet against it. However, most probable is a range of four-stroke singles, possibly with fuel injection, aimed at beating the clampdown on two-stroke personal transportation vehicles which is now gather-

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