Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Spyvs. Spy won't have the latest T500-series fue linjected eng ine package. But while supplies of so me eng ines will be restricted because of our own need s, we'll be hap py to d iscuss a similar deal with anyone else wher e the re's no obvio us co nflict with one o f ou r ex is ting mod els - and tha t includes motor cycle com pa nies, as well as a car manu facturer like Stra thcarron." Aprilia X2 Aprilia' s alliance with Rena ult to de velop their ow n fo u r-cy li nder sp o rtbi ke engine is still bubbling und er, acco rd ing to well-placed sou rces, but right now the Italian firm is concent rat ing on expand- • ing its RSVI000 6O-degree V-twin range with tw o new mod els ex p ected at the Milan Sho w in September. On e o f th os e m od e ls is th e Sport Touri ng version of the Mille that's been under development a t the co m pa ny's new San Mari no R&D base, head ed by former Bimo ta ch ief eng ineer Pierlu igi Ma rconi. The other is a half-faired sportbik e targeted a t the VTRI000/ 900SS/ TLlOOOS and Triumph's new Sprint RS, to be known as the RSV Mille Superlegge ra (Italian for "lig htweigh t"). Apart from having a d etuned ve rsio n of th e Ro tax-bu ilt engine, thi s keenly priced varia n t will use a di fferent cha ssis tha n the existing Mille and its SP high- perfor-mance sho rt-stroke su perbikespi noff, now at last about to en ter a bela ted prod uction run initia lly lim ited to the bare 150 examples needed for World Superbike hom ologati on . The Superl eggera is u nderstood to employ a distinctive tubular-aluminum semi-spa ceframe resembling a doubledu p ve rs io n of th e Tig cr a f t- d es ig n ed MuZ Skorpion chass is, which , togeth er wit h a sin gle fron t d isc a nd the bikin i b od y w ork, resul ts in a r e por ted 22 pound weigh t saving ove r th e existing fully-faired Mille. Apri lia's expansion at the top end of its mod el ran ge coincides wi th the compa ny' s push in to North Am erica, w it h th e o p e n in g of i ts Am erica n b as e in A tla nta ea rlier this year, and a s tee p in crease in its expo rt revenues d u ring 1998 - which for the first tim e eve r surpassed sales in Italy. Aprilia production rose by 12 percent in th e las t calendar year to 325,000 powered tw o-wheelers, of wh ich 52 percent were sold outside Italy. Company turnover increased by 29 percen t to 1,200 billion Lire ($640 million ), a hike of 29 percent over the previous year. And the Beggio family' s pri vate company al so w on tw o GP Wo rld Cha mpions hi ps in 1998, recentl y becomin g the first European manufacturer in the mod em era to gain pole pos ition in all three classes of Gra nd Prix racing in a single d ay , All th is came a t the Ita lian GP at Mugello in May, when Tetsuya Harada's debut pole for the Aprilia RSVSOO V-twin (with the aid of Dunl op qua lifying tires), on a ci rcuit favo ri ng th e Ja pa ne se Vfours, comp leted a clean sweep for Ap rilia in the 125, 250 and SOOcc grids. Ready,set, go for Benelli As reveal ed in th is sp ace two months ago, Benelli is set to launch its new fuelinjected 900cc Su perbike to the wo rld 's press on July 21, pri or to a public debu t at the Milan Sho w in Sep tember. Slated to be ca lled th e Tornad o 900 (n amed a fte r th e last "re al" Benelli mod el - a 650cc pushrod tw in , produced by the Pesar o-b ased Italian com pany w hile it was still in family ow nership, befor e the De Tomaso takeov er), th e inn ova tiv e bike has an u ltra-compact in-lin e threecylinder engine that allow s the Tornado to ~ea sure an im p re ssive 30m m narrower than the Ducati 916 V-tw in. Clad in extrem ely dramatic, inn ova- tive sty ling with a radical take on headlight d esign tha t makes Tamburi ni's MV Agusta F4 mon opod look almost conve ntional. the Benelli will be d elivered in only one color schem e - the green a n d-s ilver h ouse liv en' of the w orks fou r-cylinder GP racer 'tha t Au strali an Kel Carruthers took to the 250cc World _ Championship in 1969. Late wo rd has it that Carruthers will even be the gues t of hon or at the event. With testing of the distinctive sho rtstro ke 12-val ve engi ne now well un d er w av , Benelli boss Andrea Merl on i has fi n~li zed his develop me n t sched u le which calls for a limi ted-edition series of bikes with a similar hig h specification to the Serie d 'Oro MV Agusta F4 to begin p rod uction in Sep tem ber 2000. The produ ction wi ll m eet the m inim um 150 bik es needed to hom ologat e the Tornad o for su p erbike racin g by the en d of Feb rua ry 2001. .Volu me production of the 900 Superb ike will begin in spring:of tha t year. In an in novati ve step in the mot or cycle world (Ferra ri does the same thing in cars), Bene lli has establishe d a Web site d evot ed to the p resenta tio n of the Torna do 900, which has been open since Jun e 18 a t the fo llowi ng ad d ress : h tt p:// www.torna dobenelli .co m . On Ju ly 21, in conjunction with th e press laun ch o f th e n e w m od el in a villa bes id e th e Pesaro race ci rc u it where [a rno Saarinen wo n Benelli's last race on his one and only rid e on the 500cc fourcylinder GP racer, "benellisti" aro und the world w ill b e able to log on and see w ha t the new bike looks like at the same tim e as the wo rld's press. Happy Birthday,G P rand rixracing Th e cu rre n t sea son ma rks th e 50t h anniversary of the start of World Championship road racing back in 1949, a fact ma rked by the pu blication of a lavishly illu strated 128-page histor y of the pa st five d ecad es (a nd , in p rologu e form , before) by French au thor Didier Gan neau : "50 Ans de Grands Prix Moto 1949-1999." Schoolboy"!girl French will be more than su fficient to guide you th rough the text, which takes second pla ce to the book's Maxi- roadsters are set to be the them e of the 1999 Milan Show that begins on September 15. In addition to increasin gly aut horitative hin ts that Ducati is planning to launch the long-aw aited desmoquattro version of the Mo nster - by din t of dropping the ST4's 944cc eight-valve engine into the M-seri es spaceframe to at last concoct the Mon ster jus t as crea tor Miguel Galluzzi intended it to be produced - it now appears that Cagiva is set to make a high-profile comeback with the pair of Suzuki TLlooospowered Z-4 aked Roadsters. The b ikes , als o d esigned by Galluzz i, w er e exc lus ivelv re veal ed in thi s column earlier this year, and extensive road testing has refin ed these in to potent mu sclebikes tha t set new standards in street-rod performance. Both designed in Varese by Migue l Galluzzi (co n tr a r y to reports elsewhere, MV magician Massimo Tamburini has had ze ro input on either of the new models a nd concentrates exclusivel y o n A sp y photo of the Cagiva Z-4 prototype- a four-cylinder Cagi va g ro u p pro- naked bike that will be launched at tlie Milan jects), the Z-4 duo have been con- show in Se ptem ber. ceived from the beginning to share the same distinctive "w avy-line" spaceframe d esign , bu t wit h quite di fferen t sty ling. The neo-classic "anti-Monster" base version is set to be priced to com pete with the Ducati 900M (and the Italjet Grifon 900!) and is likely to be known as the Zeta -4 (or possibl y the Planet 1000 - styling is simila r to Cagiva 's 125 roa ds te r) , Th e m or e radical an d aggressive- lo oking "d roop-snoot" ve rsio n w ill be called th e Raptor 1000. Cag iva bo ss Cla ud io Cas tiglioni doesn't think the id en tity clash with the limited-ed ition Mu zzy Kawasaki of the same name poses any probl em s - and an yway, the prey for which his own pet Ra ptor is hunti ng is so mewha t closer to home... evocative array of 175 we ll-chosen photos . These pages brillian tly ca p ture the h ighli g h ts of eac h e ra in a way tha t denotes expe rt choice, and since Gannea u was for several years the GP correspondent for France's leading bike magazine, Moto Journal, that's wha t you have here. T he re's a cons ta n t s uccessio n of nuggets . Did yo u know, for exa mple, that the wo rks Du cati 125 J esm os used to race w ith 'the sa me Pra ncing Ho rse ("II Cavallino") emblem on the fuel tank tha t th e Fer rari car fa cto ry 12 mil es away ado p ted on their cars -'and for the same reason (it' s the emblem of a local fl y in g a ce , Bara cca )? M a r vel a t th e u nclot hed complexity of th e, V4 125cc Yamah a R A ~ 1 or th re e-cy lind e r MV Agusta. Ca p ture th e a m bia nc e of the Co n tinenta l Circus w it h paddock ph otos like the one showing World 500cc Cha m p ions hip runner-up Jack Findlay be in g p u sh -started by his gir lfrie n d, Na nou. Wa tch the wo rks Harley-Dav id- Gilera to m akecomeback An other Ita lia n brand reportedl y pl an n in g a co meback is Gilera. Now the property of the Piaggio scoo ter empire owned by Fiat 's Agnelli fam ily, Gilera - alon g with MV Ag us ta and Mot o Guzzi - is one of the most his tor ic names in Italian motorcycli ng. Sin ce closing Gilera 's Arco re facto ry in 1993, Piaggio has on ly u sed th e name on a ha ndful of badge-e ngineered scooters built alongsid e the Vespa in its Ponte dera factory. But in the wak e of the successful relaunch of MV Agusta (and the im minent return of Benelli), Du cati's ongoi ng World Superbike success, and the continui ng sportbike boo m arou nd the wor ld an d especially in Italy, the mu ch-ru mored re tu rn of Gile ra to the mot orcycle mar ket now appears a near certainty, accord ing to sources wi thin Piaggio. A key factor in this is Piaggio managemen t's links with Carlo Perna t, the ma n behind Ap rilia's Wor ld title-winning success during his many years as Gra nd Prix team manager for the Italian company. After a couple of yea rs ru nning the nearb y Genova Serie A soccer club , Pernat is set to return to motorcyclin g by linking wit h th e firm w it h which he began his tw o-wheeled career. This comes after Pernot was at one stage d iscussin g a tieup with the Benelli factory's future Su perbike race effort. "We' ve been in discussions 'w i th Pia ggio for qu ite a while about relaunch ing Gilera," Pernat admitted in an interview in the Italian pres s, "And we're very close to signi ng a mediumterm dea l, ov er a two- to three-y ear p er iod , whi ch would inv olve developing a high-tech sportbike pr oduct with up-market appeal, and soon after, going racing, in ord er to promote it." Va rious sources indica te tha t this would entail Piaggio obtaining a supply of fou r-cylinder engines fro m a Jap an ese ma nufacturer (Kawasa ki and Honda are spoken of as the lead ing contenders). This wo uld then form the basis of a high-t ech , alluring ly styled su pe rbike ma de in Italy, almost certai nly fitted wi th Marelli EFl - and most probably bu ilt elsewhere than Piaggio's high-volu me Ponted era base, perhaps even by a specialist so n team of Unci ni and Villa ru b fairin g s w ith e ac h o t he r as t h e y a llo w Cecotto's Yamaha to steal victory in the th rilling las t co rner of the Belg ian GP . Read Canneau's au tho rita tive acco u nt of the origins of rad ial-tire technology, and u nd erst and w hy it ha p pened , as well as how . Look at the snow-covered Austria n GP pad d ock or the terrifyin g, rickety towers of so ma ny of the 300,000 spec tators at the Eas t German GP, and soak in the atm osphere (they raced in th e snow, by the way, after sa lting the track!). Ga n nea u's bo ok is a w ort hy su mmary in sn apshot for m of the pa st half-cen tury, and t he co ve r p hoto of Olivier Jacqu e d rag ging his hand on the gro u nd while cra nke d o ve r in a turn aboa rd his NSR250 Hon da is just about wor t h th e cos t (160 Fren ch Fra n cs abou t $25) of the book alone. The boo k is published by Edi tions Solar in Pari s. For more -information, fax them at (33) eN 1-4416-0519. ' . ~a~s;C:~=:~~~ii~!:=' s u b-con tracto r s u ch Bimo ta . Given t h~t Gilera / Piaggio and Ho nda had already once anno unced a lin k-up for the suppl y of CBR600 engi nes to th e italia n fi rm (back in 1992 , tho ugh t he d e a l never re ached fru ition , with the closi ng ,of the Arco re factory and the d ropping of p lans for,the.Gilera 600 Su persport co n te nder), thi s seems a likely scena rio. One of Italy's most famous However, one wrinkle in motorcycle manufacturers may this ga me plan is the possi- be back in the fray before long. bl e return of fo u r-st ro ke Gilera • the makers of this 1950s Gra nd Pri x rac ing . The lure Gilera 500cc GP racer - is talking of th a t m ight a lso see th e about making a comeback In the Agnelli family - perceived as marketplace. t h e g ua rd ia ns o f It a li an m ot or s p orts prestige after their success fu l effo rts in restoring Ferrari to the front ran ks of Form ula One co n tenders - underwrite Gilera's return to GP competition, If tha t' s the case, then a ioco« (rather than 75Occ) fuel -injected sportbike, initially using a bo ught-in mo tor such as the ZX-9R or CBR900RR, but with a lOO-percent local product derived from a pu tative Gilera GP racer furt her down the line, might be in the ca rd s. Either way, it seems increasingly likely that Italy's oldest mo torcycle ma rque - foun d ed in 1909 and the inventor of the modem transverse in-lire four-cylinder engine forma t - may be making a comeback soo ner rather than later . It all depends on whe ther Piaggio's ma nagement can be sa tisfied wit h tlieir R&D team's abili ty to p rovide added va lue to a [a pa nese-engi ned product to jus tify its ex tra cos t, even as a means of attracting cus tome rs int o Piaggio showrooms. 5

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