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it'll be a sports tourer or perhaps a 600 Supersport or a different one-liter sportbike. But in between times we'll constantly be updating the Vor range, which will follow a separate development track. such an ultracompetitive, price-conscious segment of the market successfully? A Yes, maybe we could - because I think the 600 Supersport category will become increasingly important for all sportbike manufacturers in the imme- Q diClte future, both big ones and small, and Honda has A in the future - and that means building up production At the moment Mondial uses the VTR 1000 SP engine for the Piega, and the forthcoming Nuda will be powered by that, too. Does this mean that all future Mondials will be V-twins? No. While always making sportbikes, within four or five years I see Mondial using a fourcylinder Honda engine and maybe even a fivecylinder one. If Honda is really going to do this for the street - why not?! Because of the architecture of the Piega, it's true my ideal would be to have a lOOOcc V-four, but if Honda is not going to produce this then I will certainly ask them to supply us the new RCB 1000 engine they're reportedly developing for next year. Q YOU mentioned 600cc Supersport just now. Do you really envisage Mondial could enter f1jlj@ffi)@D@JD9@ an absolutely fantastic engine for this category in the new CBR600RR. But we have to give priority now to what we both have at present and have firm plans for of the Piega and getting the Nuda launched and in the marketplace. Q You're a very successful businessman in other sectors of industry. How much time are you able to devote to running Mondial, or is this just a hobby for your spare time? A then hiring. This is a very well-run operation, thanks to them. At the moment I can only come here on Saturdays, because Lastra takes up a lot of my time. But here at Arcore I have a good team of very good people, who I spent a lot of time finding and !XJD@(l@urJg [fJ@J@(l Q Okay , a good team, but many of whom came from World Superbike racing! When will Mondial follow its traditions and return to the race tracks? lt's the dream of all of us, but first we must build a company. I am running very close to my expectations for the development of Mondial, and I believe that by the time we launch the Nuda in September, we can be considered as a true manufacturer in our own right. Probably by 2005 we will be ready to go World Superbike racing, perhaps with a new model, but before that we are giving two bikes to a private team called Xl Racing, which will contest the World Endurance Championship this season for MondiaI. They are taking care of development and running the team, but it's a good start for us to learn about racing before planning a factory participation in 2005. My Japanese importer will also race a Mondial in national events there, while of course Vor will have a major competition program as in the past, especially in Enduro where we had the winner and runner-up in the ISDE in 2002. A TO what extent do you feel you are fulfilling the dreams and ambitions that drove you to revive Mondial? Is the company following the path you had envisaged for it three years ago when you started out along this road? l'm pleased with the way things are going, but to be perfectly honest, if I were to go back to three years ago, I probably wouldn't choose to go through the experience again. I had to change the team of people and the strategy for the company three times before we got it right third time with the way it is now, and because of the steep learning curve, we threw a lot of money out of the window. The inevitable delays that took place were extremely frustrating, but now things are finally running smoothly, and I think we are very, very close to having a successful company. It has come right in the end! We have a beautiful-looking bike, which is consistently praised in magazine tests and comparisons, so is functionally successful; we have a continuous flow of orders for it, and the feedback from our customers who have received their bikes is consistently positive, so we seem to be achieving our high quality targets and are running to budget, which is the most important thing. So, this has completely revitalized my enthusiasm for the whole project, and in fact I've just pumped in a significant amount of extra capital to underwrite the development of the Nuda - so I can't afford to turn my back on it, now! Q [fJ@W@@(l9 !PC!!J(lC!!J[?@ [fJ@@D(lDf!l@ One of the dozens of small motorcycle manufacturers that flourished in post- WW2 Italy, Bologna-based Mondial set itself apart from its rivals by winning 10 road racing World Championships in the J 25cc and 250cc Grand Prix classes between 1949 and 1957 - five riders' crowns and five manufacturers' titles in just eight years, during which the forward-looking bike company was the first to develop a disc brake as well as the prototype of today's streamlined fairings. Designed by Alfonso Drusiani, the little DOHC Mondial singles turned convention on its head by defeating the lightweight two-strokes which already then predominated in the smaller road racing classes, featuring the same bevel-gear drive system to the overhead camshafts which would later form the basis of the better-known Ducati singles. By no coincidence, legendary Ducati designer Fabio Taglioni worked for two years at Mondial under Drusiani before moving across Bologna to the rival Ducati factory in 1954. Indeed, inspired by that year's Formula 1 world title-winning desmo Mercedes-Benz engines, it was actually Mondial that was the first to design its own prototype desmodromic motorcycle engine, before any Ducati ever featured positive valve operation. So advanced was the design of its little GP racers that Mondial went three full seasons without being beaten in the 125cc class, and though its MV Agusta and NSU rivals enjoyed a short spell of supremacy, in 1957 the company bounced back to scoop both 125cc and 250cc GP world titles in the same year, thanks to flamboyant Italian Tarquinio Provini (125) and more downbeat British ace Cecil Sandford (250). But at the end of that season, Count Giuseppe Boselli (who founded the Monilial company pre-WW2 in collaboration with his three brothers, hence the marque's full correct title of "F.B. Mondial," standing for "Fratelli Boselli") puiled Mondial out of GP racing in conjunction with Moto Guzzi and Gilera in a secret deal that saw the three companies, which between them had won all four GP solo world titles that year, withdraw from competition in the face of falling streetbike sales. . Though it continued to remain a bit player in the Italian bike market, Mondial was only ever a hobby for the aristocratic Boselli family, whose main income came from huge estates in the countryside south of Milan. The company never built any bikes larger than 250cc, and its sporadic existence wound down in the late '60s with a range of 50cc mopeds, which Beselli promoted by sponsoring the Villa brothers in Italian road racing aboard their self-built two-stroke specials, christened Mondials for that purpose even though the company's own race shop had been shut down back in 1958. But a decade ago the marque resurfaced, when Count Boselli's eldest son Pierluigi developed a competitive KTM-engined Mondial Supermono racer, as well as a prototype range of stillborn 125cc two-stroke streetbikes, which never made it into volume production. The Argentinean company of the same name producing scooters today in some quantity has no connection. A HOW much money have you invested in Mondial to date, to bring it to the point where it is today, and when do you project turning a profit? l've spent nine million euro [about $9.8 million) so far, but turning a profit isn't my main objective. I want the company to be self-sufficient, so the important thing is that it stands on its own feet. and I don't have to make any more cash injections; making a profit is not my concern. My interest is to build a good product and to develop a range of bikes that give pleasure to their owners, which will give me great satisfaction knowing we achieved our aim. With the Piega, we will reach break-even point this year with the orders at their present level, so things are right on track, and that's why I've pumped in the development money for the Nuda, as well as acquiring Vor. With the Nuda we will move into profit, which when it comes, I will reinvest in developing new models. And that's the way we plan to move forward - the difficult thing was to build the basis for doing so, and that's what we've now achieved here at Arcore. eN Q A cue I e n e _ S • JUNE 25, 2003 49