Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Mondial Piega flj)@fJ!J@)[J,!jJ[1 'fl§@[J{}g 1ltYJ[l[JiJ5[JiJ@ DD50{]@[j}J {jf}[f)05ciki1 [§)@127[))J To revive the Mondial marque, Roberto Ziletti has turned history upside down by forging a long-term agreement with Honda to obtain supplies of the Japanese firm's SP-l, fuelinjected, 90-degree V-twin engine, marking the first time that Honda has ever agreed to sell engines to another independent manufacturer, however small, for installation in their own models. This comes about, says 'Honda Europe chief Silvio Manicardi, as repayment of a debt of honor dating back to 1957, when Soichiro Honda was cheeky enough to ask Mondial's Count Boselli to sell him one of the dohc singles with which Mondial had just defeated MV Agusta to clinch both the 125 and 250cc GP World Championships, in order to study the benchmark European technology Honda would be competing against when the Japanese company made its own GP debut in 1959. The Italian nobleman agreed to do so - the Mondia! is now the first bike you see when you walk into Honda's Motegi Collection Hall today - so when Mondial asked for the favor to be repaid with the supply of Honda V-twin motors for the Piega, Honda felt they could not refuse! The unmodified Japanese V-twin engine, which together with the instrument cluster and the sidestand are the only Honda parts carried over to the Piega, is installed in a lightweight, chrome-moly, tubular-steel chassis bearing an undeniable resemblance to a scaled-down version of a Ducati spaceframe. This follows the general format of the original chassis design which equipped the prototype Piega I rode on its world debut at Valencia a year ago, but now features revised geometry with a wider 23.5-degree head angle, longer 1420mm wheelbase, and more-ideal 52/48-percent static weight distribution. Rather than MondiaJ's own design of six-pot brake calipers, upside-down forks and rear shock as fitted to the original prototype, the Piega now employs more proven, top-of-theline hardware in the form of a Brembo brake package with 320mm discs gripped by fourpad, four-piston calipers, and finely adjustable, race-spec suspension, with 46mm Paioli TIN-coated upSide-down forks. An Ohlins rear shock with rising-rate link is attached to the aluminium swingarm, which is clad in carbon fiber not only for styling reasons and a cleaner lopk, but also to increase stiffness. With the SP-1's stock 54mm Keihin throttle bodies and twin injectors per cylinder mounted beneath the throttle butterfly, fitted within an all-new, fully sealed, carbon-fiber airbox that is actually two liters bigger than the equivalent Honda component, fed by a central carbon·fiber ram·air intake duct and matched to an Italian-built EFI engine-man· agement system, the Piega delivers a claimed 140 bhp at the gearbox at 9800 rpm in street-legal guise - 7 bhp more than a standard SP-l in same-day dyno tests. Ziletti says that this is thanks mainly to the Mondial's titanium and stainless·steel Arrow exhaust system, which is carefully contoured to contain the twin silencers beneath the shapely single seat, and to the improved mapping of the EFI CPU, which features a remote external terminal which will permit Piega owners to download new engine-mapping programs received from Mondial over the intemet. Allied to a claimed half-dry weight of 384 pounds (so, with oil and water, but no fuel) for the Piega, no less than 33 below Honda's cataloged dry weight for the SP-1/2 (no oil/water, nor any battery acid etc.), this delivers a promising power·to·weight ratio on paper. This performance is born out in tests. Note that the SP-2 Honda V-twin's 62mm throttle bodies form part of a racekit Mondial has homologated, which will be available together with appropriate ECU mapping update for street customers to retro-fit if they wish, to produce a power-up Piega capable of running with the best on top end at track days, etc. However, the bike accelerates better and laps faster on a twisty test track like Adria when fitted with the smaller throttle bodies, says former Ducati works mechanic Enrico Folegnani - Troy Corser's chief mechanic in 1996, the year the Aussie won the World Superbike title, and one of the several top-class technicians Ziletti has gathered around him to create the Piega, and to go racing with it in World Superbike next season. Included in these is former Cagiva 500cc technical guru and Benelli Tornado designer Riccardo Rosa, who's been acting as a consultant to Mondial in the final development process. With Ziletti by his own admission sinking upward of Euro 9 million (over $9 million) in development costs to create the Piega as the vehicle for MondiaJ's rebirth, the result Is somewhat inevitably both a costly and exclusive product which will retail anywhere in Europe for a common Euro 25,000 price ($25,180)+ appropriate local tax for the painted version with an aluminium fuel tank, or Euro 27,000 ($27,194) for the unpainted one, with a carbon fuel tank (all Piegas have a carbon-fiber seat and fairing made by local specialists Carbon Dream, who were also largely responSible for the styling), and prices out· side Europe are the same, plus shipping. Mondial plans to build 250 examples of the bike in the 2002 model year, and to manufacture them, Ziletti has constructed a brand-new factory close to the Monza GP circuit, at Arcore - coincidentally, for most of the last century the home of their Gilera GP rival, which is now being reborn 60 miles away in Varese, in the former home of a third historic GP contender, MV Agusta. Mondial will take a Jeaf from Aprilia's book in sub-contracting the manufacture of all components to outside suppliers, leaving only final assembly to be completed in-house, while commercially, the company will follow instead in Ducati's tiretracks by marketing the Piega both via the small network of 20 dealers they've established throughout Europe, and via the Internet, on Web site www.mondialrnoto.it. Future plans call for production to be gradually increased, with the debut of a naked version of the Honda-powered V-twin sportbike which will be launched at the Bologna Motor Show in December, called - what else?1 - the Nuda, of which 800 examples will be manufactured in 2003. Ziletti says he plans to grow the company slowly, while still retaining its exclusive, high-end position in the market. But don't get the idea that MondiaJ is just another rich playboy's trophy marque: Ziletti's established track record in business and his success in convincing Honda of his bona fides combine to create the definite impression of a new motorcycle manufacturer that is born well, and is being refounded on a serious, businesslike basis. Bike's not bad, either.....1 38 JULv31, 2002' cue I e n e _ s this is a motorcycle whose worth has yet to be proven in the white heat of Superbike competition. In the Piega package, the Honda powerplant makes a claimed seven more horsepower than In the RC51. After spending a day riding it, and getting down to what seemed to be recognized as a pretty good lap time for the Adria track, I'd say the Battle of the Twins, a.k.a. latter-day Superbike racing, just got added reinforcements in the shape of a new soldier. It's biggest advantage in street form has to be the fabulous steering, especially in the pair of Adria chicanes, one of which you approach under heavy braking at the end of a fourthgear straight, then have to flick from side to side still on the brakes, before getting back on the throttle while still cranked over for the drive out around the long left hander that follows. This not only underlined how well the Mondial stops, but its composure under braking. It doesn't sit up and understeer if you grab an extra handful leaned over, nor does it push the front wheel when you get back on the gas. lnstead, it lets you pick an inchperfect line through a narrow chicane without deviating from the course you chose for it. Changing direction is also easy aboard the Piega, which feels a lot more compact but also less tall than a Ducati - more like a Honda. This chicane also set the Mondial a tough exam in a critical element of fuel-injection wizardry: how the bike responds when you get back on the gas again from a closed throttle. Having ridden the Benelli Tornado Superbike racer fitted with the same Italian EFI engine-management system as have been more different. In fact, far from being brusque and snatchy when it picks up out of turns in any gear higher than first, the EFI (think about it!) delivered arguably a smoother, yet stronger acceleration in lower gears than even the stock Honda PGM-FI injection, perhaps because it's a more fully integrated package which delivers a finer match of ignition-curve variability related to fuel mapping. The smaller 54mm throttle bodies fitted to the standard street Piega definitely enhance acceleration from low down, compared to the bigger 62mm kit parts that come stock on the SP-2. But that's before taking into account the Piega package's 7-bhp claimed power increase over the Honda from which it gets its engine, and the 50· pound weight advantage it offers once both are carrying battery acid, oil and water (the Piega weighs just 365 pounds, measured the Japanese way, says Ziletti), both key factors in enhancing low-down performance when you twist that throttle and revel in the Mondial's typically lusty V-twin beat from the Arrow exhausts. It sounds more muffled than a Ducati, and the engine isn't quite as hardedged and torquey, so you have to work the gearbox a little harder than with a desmoquattro, just as on a stock SP Honda. But from 4000 rpm, where it comes on strong, up to the the Mondial, I was prepared to have 9800-rpm power peak, where it starts to flatten out, the Mondial delivers a to cope with an abrupt pickup out of turns, of the kind that unsettled the completely linear power curve which makes it both satisying and easy to Tornado triple when I rode it at Misano and made accelerating out of a corner early while still cranked hard over a real test of judgement, and ride hard. It puts the power down well via the rear Pirelli/Ohlins combo, with the shock carried very low down to lower the cee of gee for enhanced even bravery. The Mondial couldn't handling - I could feel the Dragon i

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