Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

An MVand Husky Update w: th MV Agusta's future now assured after its recent takeover by Malaysia's Proton (which in return for a euro 70 million capital injection has acquired a majority 57.75 percent equity), the company is moving fast to develop a future strategy aimed at establishing it as the world's most prestigious series-production motorcycle manufacturer both on- and (through its Husqvarna marque) off-road. It seems that former MV Agusta owner Claudio Castiglioni, who remains president/CEO of the company under Proton ownership and whose family continues to retain a 37.25-percent shareholding in the firm, held an exhaustive mid-February planning session in the firm's CRC subsidiary's design center in San Marino. Castiglioni spent two days brainstorming new model strategies with MV design in 2006, most probably with two designated teams, says Castiglioni - but there will also be a kit available for any pri- vate teams who wish to race with it themselves, either at World level or in National series. The MV Agusta Group manufactured 22,700 bikes in total in 2004, split between its three marques (so, including Cagiva), and in 2005 is planning to increase this to 30,000 models, progressively increasing production over the next three or four years to a total of 40,000 units annually. Last year was a record year for MV Agusta production, with 6000 bikes produced and delivered. "Perhaps this will rise to an annual ceiling of around 8000 bikes, but not more," says Castiglioni. "I know the market is hungry for more MVs, but apart from the fact that we cannot guru Massimo Tamburini - now a 2-percent equity holder in manufacture any more bikes than we are currently doing with the restructured MV Agusta motor company. The two men established MV Agusta's model strategy for the next 10 years, and although Castiglioni understandably refuses to discuss what was decided, it's understood that the game plan calls for three new four-cylinder MV models to be introduced in the our present facilities [the MV engine shop that builds the coming decade, thus expanding the existing two-model range the sake of it, nor will they lower prices. MV Agusta will fol- comprised of the F4 1000 Ultrasports and F4 750 Brutale 5treetrod. Contrary to some reports in the motorcycle press, MV Agusta has no plans in the short term to introduce a full 1000cc Brutale powered by the F4 Mille's superbike-focused radial-valve four-cylinder engine - on the grounds that this would deliver excessive performance for a naked bike with a firm's radial-valve four-cylinder motors is currently running on a 24/24 triple-shift basis, producing 30 engines per day], perhaps we also ought not to do so. MV is and must remain the Ferrari of motorcycles: Ferrari won't increase volume for low the same route, limiting production to levels where we can deliver the finest quality as well as a high level of technology to our customers. Their cost is higher than the Japanese equivalent, but that's a mark of their desirability, precisely because we do not cheapen their image via the economy of scale, which allows the Japanese to sell at a lower price." MV Agusta will return to competition this coming season relatively upright riding position. But what is planned in the in significant numbers, mainly in the Superstock class, thanks medium term is a long-stroke 900c( version of the to the impressive performance of the F4 Mille in comparison Tamburini-designed street rod. The full looocc version of the engine only reached its present I-liter capacity via several tests with the products of the Japanese Big Four. One of the several famous names becoming associated with MV is Roberto Gallina, the double former Italian Champion and interim stages, confirms Andrea Goggi. the head of engine development at MV Agusta. Goggi has followed the evolution of the F4's radial-valve, inline four-cylinder motor since its initial design more than a decade ago as a joint enterprise between Cagiva and Ferrari Engineering - whose owner, Piero Ferrari, is a personal friend of Castiglioni's. "We first made if motore grosso [the big engine] in 1996," Goggi said. "But at that stage, it was only a 900, because we only stroked the engine to 52.5mm from 43.8mm, while retaining the 750 engine's 73mm bore." That gave MV Agusta an 898cc motor - this in the heyday of the Honda CBR900 and Kawasaki ZX-9R of equivalent capaCity, thus matching the Japanese ultrasports of the era but MV had its eye on the then-750cc four-cylinder Superbike MV Agusta and Husqvarna boss Claudio Castiglioni. Grand Prix rider who for several years ran factory Suzukis in 500cc GP racing, winning the World Championship twice in successive years with Marco Lucchinelli (1981) and Franco Uncini (1982). Team Gallina later raced factory NSR500 Hoodas, with Frankie Chili in the hot seat, before Gallina retired to concentrate on his Suzuki and Ducati dealership in La Spezia. He went on to develop the first Italian four-cylinder superbike - the Gallina 750 Quattro - in 1992 for a with all the traditional qualities and sporting traditions of the marque," he says. "The only question is, what kind of twincylinder bike? There are so many potential ways in which to position such a model, from hard enduro through to adven- ture tourer, even 100-percent tarmac models like a naked sports. We're still deciding." An added advantage of developing such an engine - almost certainly a compact, relatively narrow-angle, eight-valve Vtwin capable of being built in various capacities from 650cc to 1000cc - is that it would provide justification for the increased Proton-sourced investment needed to expand the MVengine plant, as well as providing a long-term basis for the relaunch of the Cagiva marque. Production of the 650 Raptor is now once again in full flow, powered like its 1000cc counterpart by Suzuki V-twin Japanese patron, while also grooming his son Michele to also become a successful road racer. After winning the Italian engines, though Cagiva's own power units will eventually Sport Production title and, in 2004, the Italian SupertWins series, Michele Gallina will race an MV Agusta F4 Mille developed by his father in the Italian Superbike Championship this "We are a true motorcycle manufacturer, not a virtual one whose entire range employs motors manufactured outside the company," Castiglioni says. "We've proved ourselves I99B, it was a 750. So. the big engine was put into cold stor- season. Husqvarna, meanwhile, manufactured just over 12,000 age - until now. off-road bikes in 2004, and with a target of 15,000 for this capable of developing and manufacturing entirely in-house engines ranging from a 50cc single-cylinder two-stroke, up to a four-cylinder inline four-stroke producing 180 bhp in street form. Such a company can perfectly well produce a 650cc Vtwin engine producing 70 bhp. or a hundred-horsepower race class. That meant that when the F4 was launched in Prior to the bike being introduced, MV Agusta will have returned to World Championship road racing in the Superbike class, with the new F4 1000 Corsa due to be launched at the Milan Show in November. This will embody the same strategy as Ducati first adopted under Castiglioni's ownership more than a decade ago - developing a competitive superbike racer via an intensive on-track R&D program, which will then be reverse-engineered into an exclusive but expensive limited-edition street bike, for homologation pur- poses. This will almost certainly incorporate not only the F4 1000's MotoGP-type electronic braking system (EBS) antiiock brake device controlled by the Magneti Marelli engine management system but also the variable-length intake system of the F4 Tamburini - which has now entered production in 300off limited-edition guise. However, the F4 1000 Corsa will be even more exclusive, with only 150 examples of the "racer- with-lights" scheduled to be built - sufficient to homologate it for World Superbike racing, though. The factory race version of this model will compete in that series with official support 10 MARCH 16,2005 • CYCLE NEWS year, production is already in full flow on three of the four replace these. assembly lines on the MV Agusta Group's Cassinetta plant. "Our ceiling for Husqvarna will be 20,000 bikes a year within the next three years," Castiglioni says. "Not more than this, for a similar reason to MY. We want to keep quality high and the brand an exclusive one. The off-road market has worthwhile volume but stays at a very constant level, which same time what kind of power units they need for the Asian market, which may also be used in future Cagiva models. Their sophisticated rapid prototyping capability will allow us makes it easy for a manufacturer to achieve saturation, as I to respond very fast once a decision about this has been believe has happened with one significant competitor which has been forced to expand into the street bike sector to com- made." pensate for this." 1000cc V-twin - and it's true that this is one of the priorities we must address together with Proton in determining at the MY engineers are also concentrating on developing the allnew Husqvarna 2S0cc four-stroke motor, which is expected Presumably, he's referring to KTM - but the big news is to reach the dyno this spring and to enter production in 2006. that Husqvarna is indeed also planning to develop a twin- This four-valve power unit is extremely compact and light, cylinder on/off-road range, powered by an all-new family of even by the standards of Husqvarna's rivals, weighing just 46 pounds when fitted with a five-speed gearbox (there's space for a six-speeder, too) with electric start. Projected power outputs are 35 hp in enduro form, and a startling 40 hp in V-twin engines that it will manufacture alongside the existing HVA singles and MV fours in their Schiranna engine plant. Castiglioni confirms this but says that it'll take four years at least for this to happen. "My intention is to develop a twin-cylinder Husqvarna motocross guise. Alan Cathcart

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