Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

..... .-. . ... ._ :-1- • .... .,.,.~ ~ - Happenings In M otorcycling If yo u liv e in South ern Californi a and are interested in purchasin g some hop -up parts fro m Yoshi m ura, check out its new retail sto re in Corona . Th e Yosh im ura Retail Center has the co m pany 's full li ne of produ cts for sale, in cluding exhausts, electrical, eng ine, suspe nsio n and chassis item s. Yoshimura offers engi ne ki ts for Supermot o, m otocross, off-road, A TV and roa d race bik es. Th e Reta il Cent er also has suspension ki ts for you r MX bike. It offers No leen J6 Sh oc k Service - the off icial suspension o f Yo sh imu ra/ M ot o XX rac e team. Supermoto. m ot ocro ss, supe rcross, endu ro, off-road or ju st th e week end rider will benefit fro m the various services from No leen J6. For information on the Retail Sales call (909 ) 231-1427. Store hours are Mond ay-Fri day, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. By ALA N CATHCAR T • • MV to World Superbike? Italy's only four -cylinder liter-bike was the undisputed star of the 2003 Milan show - and in finally making its long-awaited appearance. the MV Agusta F4 Mille underlined the resur gence in the fortunes of Italy 's most historic marque. in every way truly the Ferrari of two wheels. For most of 2002. MY's 600-man workforce at its three different factories located in and around Varese was essentially laid off. with only sporadic production of its back-ordered fourcylinder F4 and Husqvarna dirtbike models, as Castiglioni fought to prevent his company from sinking under by unwrangling it from Piaggio. Since January 10, MV has been in amminlstrezlone control/ala. the Italian equivalent of U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after it was determined that the backlog of orders for MV 's products, the quality of those products, the historic sign ificance of the marque, the interests of its workforce, and Castiglioni's projected bus iness plan for regaining profitability, all justified the company's being handed a Iiferaft in order to try to trade its way out of insolvency. That " hopeful bet" appears to be paying off , with 7600 motorcycles buil t by MV Agusta Group in the fi rst six m onths of this year and prod uction breaking the 100 bikes a day barrier by July 1. Since then it's ramped up to 140 daily, en route to a total projected 2004 production ta rget of 24,000 motorcycles spli t among all three marques. Incl uded in that will be the first of the 300 limited-edition red and black F4 1000 Tamburini specials unveiled at Milan. Orders for 70 of the 30 0 bikes scheduled to be built have been received from Japan , says Claudi o Castigli oni, with ano the r 80 headed to Germa ny, leaving the remaining 50 percent of the total production run to be shared out among the rest of the wo rld. However, even this small volume will be sufficien t to ho mologate th e "Mass imo" - as the bike will surely be known! - for Wo rld Superbike co m pet ition. in wh ich Castigll oni now reveals it's planned for MV Ag usta to make its long -awaited retu rn to world -class competition in 2004, for the first time since the day the music died in Octo ber, 1976 , when the four-cylinder MV Ag usta GP racer had its final race in the gloom of a Brands Hatch autumn evening . "My attachment to Gran d Pri x racing is well k nown, and the success of our family Cagiva ma rq ue in competing with honor against the Ja panese giants in 500cc GP racing until a dec ade ago is a ma tter of record," says Castig lion!. " But while it was always my dream to bring MV Agusta back to raci ng in Mo toGP, in wh ose creation I personally played a Significant role during my p residency of the aPMA Man ufac turers' Association which conceived it . I must recog nize that this is completely outside our financial capability for the forseeable future. But Wor ld Super bike is a different ma tter. especially with the new technical regulations for 1000 cc bikes and the co ntrol tire ru le instituted for 2004 , which I comp letely support as a way of bringing this streetbike-derived category back to it s origi ns. which it had strayed aw ay in seeking to rival Grand Prix racing for technical sophistication. T ogether, these new rule s provide the basis for co mpetition on an equal basis betw een rival m arques at reasonable cos t. This form of racing has a direct rele vance to our cu stomer products, and whi le the terms of our current system of ope ration (refe rr ing to the ernmlnistresione control/ata - AC) do not permit MY Agusta to go racing officially. we have had direct approaches fwm more than one existing World Superbike team which is seeking to race in the Championship next season with factory-supported MV Agusta F4 Tamburini machines. and this is a strong possibility th is will happen." In fact, the F4 Mille, which has been under development for the past five years and in prototype form has proved its potential, as well as reliability. by twice finish ing in the top six of a world -class 24 Hours endurance race, has already raced in prototype fo rm in the It ali an Superbike Championship, in which it finished an amazing third in the final round of the 2003 series at Yallelunga, the week before its show debutl However. it's the Tarnbunni F4's ground·breaking induction system that is most noteworthy, for its variable-length TTS/Torque Shifting System EFI employs a feature is derived from Formula 1 (but, interestingly , is spec ifically permitted under the new-for-2004 World Superbik e regulations, albeit only when the homologated stree tbike is fitted with the system, as is the case here!), whereby the high-revving eng ine's otherwise peaky nature is trans formed by mounting extensions to the intake stacks at low rpm , for extra torque, which are then lifted clear of the normal, shorter trumpets at 9000 rpm via a solenoid-controlled pneumatic actuator , to allow more fuel and air to be sucked in at higher revs. This allows the Tamburinl to be tuned to deliver 7 bhp more than the stock F4 Mille at its 9500 rpm power peak, witho ut sac rificing m idrange and lowdown rida bility, and will surely be ~ rep l ica ted in the fut ure on J apan ese ultrabikes. Only not just yet perhaps until MY ""g usta demonstrates the value of thi s feat ure by winning in World Superbike with it! Already eligible f o r homologatio n, the n e w MY Agusta F4 Mille Tamburlni m ight j u st be the vessel by which the fabled Italian marque returns to racing · in World Superbike. To cas t you r vot e, log on to http://www.cyclen ew s.com. If you had a v ot e for th e Cycle News ride r of the y ear, who wou ld you pick? A. B. C. D. Ricky Carmic hae l Mat Mladi n u rant Langs ton Bubba st ewa rt I. Stefan Everts - - - -,. Doug l::ampk in ... cue. e ne""s O CTO BER 29 , 2 0 03 7

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