Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Eurofile BYALAN CATHCART Ducati takeovers? Persisten t rumors in Ital y have linked newly floated Ducati with a takeover of Moto Gu z zi, and Ducati managing director Federico Minoli has been q uot.ed in the Italian financial press' as saying that his company is "very interested in Gu zzi." Ducati, however, is discouraged by the wide dispersal of the company's sh areholding (as noted in previous news item). , Minoli was also quoted in the financial dail y II Sole-24 Ore as saying he thought that Ducati and Harley-Davidson.were companies with such "com pii- . mentary " business area's t h a t , " If Harley-Davidson wanted to acquire us , I don't think we could refuse." This was presumably the s ta te ment tha t led to the w idesprea d speculation that the two com pa nies we re in talks, in turn fue ling an 8.8-perce n t jump in a sing le d ay in the Ducati stock pr ice in New York, on Jul y 7. • H o w e v er , th e days of a des mo Harley or 996 Fat Boy d on' t appe" r to be here just yet , as Minoli issued a statem ent o n Jul y 8 sayi ng th at " nei the r Du cati nor its pri ncipa l s hareholder T PG . h a ve h a d any con tacts wit h Harley-David so n concerning a possible ac q uisition of a n in teres t in Du ca ti." Smok e wit ho u t fire? Wat ch th is space. But with Mario Scandellari sta ting that "Moto Guzzi is not p resently for sale at any price," perhaps any th ou ghts of a merger bet ween the tw o legendary Italian bran d s m ay also be deferred until Guzzi's new man agem ent has had time to add so me val u e to th eir investment, so as to make a better p rofit from it. That in turn sta nds to ben efit th eir cus tomer s, w ho look set to have an interesting ran ge of new transver se V-twi ns to conside r. . W heretosee them . m m m _ :;; ~ G> g. en 4 Th e u sua l biennial jockeying between th e Mil an a nd Pari s s hows (o peni ng two we eks apart, on September 15 and October 1, respectively) has resulted in manufa ctur er s h avin g to choose between them as to where to make the bi g gest impa ct with th eir la test and g rea test. Honda has op ted to pre-em pt every one with a ma jor pr ess event intro ducing the fiv e n ew m od els with wh ic h they'll see in the Millen iurn, to be held a t th e Fu tu rosco pe th em e pa rk a t Poitiers, Fra nce, on Septem ber 8, before unv eiling th em to the public in Milan a week later. Expect the famo us five to inclu de the new ultra-lightweigh t the fuel -i njected C BR900 RR, VTR I 000SP Su perbike, and th e 1100 Hornet musclebi ke - and perhaps, too, th e com pa ny's lon g-a waited fou r-stro ke MX and end uro range. Kawasaki is also expected to opt for M il an t o lau n ch th eir new Z X-1 2R hyper-Ninja Hayabusa-hitt er and probab ly th eir new ZX-6R Su pe rsport, w hile Yama ha (Rl-derived sports tourer ) an d Suzuki (new GSX-R750) will wait un til Paris. Kawasaki ma y keep the new ·600 for Par is, like Bimota w ho'll be launchi n g the limited -ed ition Superbike ve rsio n of their SB8R at Milan, while keep in g th e 500 Evo Due for Paris - so as not to be ov er sh ad o wed by th e four-st roke. Lates t word is th at it'll be relaunched with · th e bi g 39 m m Dell 'Orto ca rbs o f th e race version, but tuned to deli ver peak power at 9800 rpm in stree t form, rather than th e 11,500 rpm of th e tu ne d -u p ra ce version. It'll still be goo d forthirdgear wheelies, th ou gh! All the o the r Italian manufacturer s w ill predi ct abl y be co ncen tra ting o n Milan to show their ne w mod els; al ong G uzzi'scom eback trail . ne w managing director Mario Scandellari, 57. who after a 10year stint with Harley-Davidson, first ran Ducati, then Cagiva and Morini for the Castiglioni family before leaving the motorcycle industry briefl y in 1994. The new Gu zzi board has lured him back with the promise of substantial inv estment in a new mod el rang e, with the long-awaited Vl I Sport first into production in the d rive toward a target annual volume of 20,000 bikes a year by 2004. This is up considerab ly compared to 1998's dism al produ ct ion of 5600 bikes, expected to grow only to barely 6000 units this vear. T o ac hie ve thi s vo lu m e, G uzzi is fo cu sin g o n fir st improving the q u ality of th eir current air-cooled V-twin range, with the new transmission of the s ix-s peed VII Spor t s lated for o ther m od els, and then on creation of a new 750,=c family of bikes com ing on board in 2001. C u r re n tly. both wa te r-cooled and o il coo le d ve rsions o f the n ew middleweight engine are und er d evelopm ent. In addition, a n ew large -capacity en gine, probabl y s till w it h two-va lve cylinde r head s, for the Ca lifornia cu s tom ran ge and more traditional s por ts m od els, is also being worked on - alongside the A new , complex network of ow ners (Including Daim ler Chrysler) and an acco mpanying infl ux of next-gen eration VA-1O liquidcash have Mot o Guzzi ho ping fo r big produ ct io n numbers. cooled 75-degree V-twin otto valvole superbike engine designed by ' Bu t as the latest chapter in Guzzi's turbulent history begin s to former chief engin eer Ang elo Ferrari. And this one will incorpounfold , th e signs are ra ther m ore promising th a t th is time rate chain fina l drive rather than th e traditional Guzzi shaftaround, the company really is on the comeback trail. An exten- d rive transmission, a motorcycle that has been running on the sive corporate reorganization fueled by inevitable stock market d yn o since March and, contrary to uninformed specu la tion, is shenanigans now sees 61 percent of Moto Guzzi still owned by already p roducing good power , acco rd ing to the latest dyno . Alessand ro de Tomaso's former OAM holding company, 84 per- sheets. Ho wever, like th eir cou n terpa rts at Du cati, Moto Guzzi 's cen t of which is in tum the property of Trident Rowan , and 16 percent of Daimler Chrysl er . And you didn't think Mercedes- new man agem ent now has d ecid ed that tradition must prevail, Benz had an interest in the motorcycle business, did you ? Sixty and that it is commercially neces sary for them to retain the prepercent of Trident Rowan is in tum trading on the New York sent 90-degree trans verse V-twin engin e format, in spite of the Stock Excha nge, with the remaining 40 percent owned by the en gineering ben efits that a m ore co m p ac t 75-d egree layout Tama rix in vestment house - join tly owned by Gianni Bulgari would offer. That mean s th e VA - 1O is cu rr e n tly b ei n g (son of th e famous Italian jewelry house) and A merican redesign ed in 90-d egree guise, and is therefore not expected to financier Mark Hauser, bo th of w hom have recently joined the make its debut in a new Guzzi supe rbike mod el until the 2001 Mo to Guzzi board of direc tors . If you haven ' t lost track of all Milan show - at the ea rliest. But wh en it does arrive, it'll be headed fo r the race track: this w heeli ng and dealing yet, go back to the begi nning w here the 39 percent of Moto Guzzi not owned by OAM has been Gu zzi's new managemen t has thought hard abo ut positioning floated on the Nasd aq stock market in New York, for public sale . the brand in the futu re, and has decided th at sportbikes must Wha t this mea ns is tha t some heavy hitters now have a vest- p rovide the basis for future growth. Still, you can expec t the ed interes t in maki ng the wings of the eagle on the company's , Nevada and Ca lifornia custom bikes - w hose steady sales have ta nk badge flap a lot harder, with a substan tia l initial cas h kept Moto Guzzi afloa t ove r the pas t decade - to continue in pr oinvestment of $8.9 million in the company heralding Hauser's d uction, bu t only as a basis for development of a range of sports appointment as chairman earlier th is year . And more is models powered by derivatives of the new VA-1O and 750cc promised. This was followed by a large intake of new m anage- engines . Maybe thi s time around th e G uzzi eag le is fin all y men t over the past four months. Mos t notable was the luting of cleared for takeoff. Moto Guzzi's corporate roller-coaster ride of recent yea rs has -taxed the faith of eve n the most committed of enthus iasts in the ability of one of Italy's most historic motorcycle brands to survive and prosper. As for attracting new customers - well, let's just say tha t buying a Moto Guzzi anytime in the past two years has been an act of faith. with Tri umph, who'll d ebu t the Sp rint RS sportbike the re (while hold ing back th e new four-eylinde r 600cc Supersport for the Birmingham Show in November). Voxan and new French company CEMM will of course present their new models at Paris. C EMM? So w ho a re CEMM? They' re a.pair of brothers, Olivier a nd Francois Mi dy, ba sed in Angers in n orth ern Fra nce, who ha ve raised the capital to cha llenge th eir Voxa n compatriots by building a 100 pe rcen t Fre nch tw in-cy linder roa dster , Theirs, however, wi ll have a 900cc fla t-twin engi ne pl aced len gthways in th e frame and with chain final d rive, . like the British- built Dou glas of th e vintage era (w hich later we nt Boxer -st yl e, like BMW), rather th an th e Voxan's Vtwin motor. Th e unnamed bike' s DOHC eig htva lve eng ine is capa ble of being built in both 600 and 750cc guises . Wh ile the Mid y brot hers plan to kick off prod uction ea rly in the next century with s teelfra med naked roadsters u sing WP suspe nsion, their stated aim is to prod uce a Su persport 750cc twin capable of com- peting on th e ra ce tra ck . All wi ll be reveale d after the lau nch of th e new bike next month . R obertsturning S iss w Kenny Roberts is se t to join forces with engine manufacturers Swissauto to purchase a su p ply of the Swiss engi ne specialis ts' si ngle-crank V-fo u r crankcase reed- val ve m ot ors, cu rren tly u sed by. th e MuZ-Weber team in 500cc GP ra cing, to eq u ip th e n ext ge nera tio n of Mod en as GP bikes. Mu Z a n d the Rob e rt s /M od ena s team already sha re a common su pplier, with th e chassis for both bikes built in Br itain b y Fab ri cat io n T e chn iqu e s . Now, before th e end of the cu rrent seaso n, and perha ps as soon as the Cz ech G P in Brno, i t seems ce r ta in th ey 'll sha re th e sa me basi c engine . Rob erts, however , is at pains to stres s that, firstly, thi s will be a par allel development stra nd to th e team' s current self-developed three-cylinder eng ine (which benefits from the 500cc cla ss 's lower 253p ound w e ight limit for t ripl e s , compared to 286 po u nds for four-cy lind er ma chines), w hich the y'll continue to race and develop alongs ide the new V- four, an d secondly, that Team Rob erts w ill be under tak ing its own R&D o n the Swissa u to engine as su pp lied, leaving th e prob ability th at th e fina l versio n w ill en d up ra th er differe n t tha n the one currently used in the MuZ. "Swissau to has d one w hat I' ve said a ll al on g was crucia l to th e fu ture o f Grand Prix racin g, and w hic h was the who le point of our d evelopin g our own engine in the firs t place," says Roberts. "Tha t is to d evelop an engine pa ckage that' s b oth co m pe titive a n d reliable, and can be bou ght by indepe ndent race teams so th ey can build th eir ow n bike around it. It's th e sa me as the Cosworth DFV Formula 1 eng ine wh ose existe nce was th e main r ea s on F-I ca r ra ci n g developed into w ha t it is tod ay . Withou t th e lev el of ou tside spo nsors hi p in GP mo torcycle racing th at yo u hav e in cars - and I hav e my ow n view s abo ut why that is, wh ich ar e o n th e reco rd and with th e cos t of d ev eloping you r ow n en gin e so g rea t, yo u need to have an engine su p plier w ho can make it feasib le for tea m s to devel op their o w n m otorcycle o n a n a ffo rd ab le budget, without having a Japanese factory taking million s of yen from you to allow yo u to lease a m otorcycle, so they end

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