Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128397
As an MV Agusta dealer, Gallina has sold more than his fair share of top-of-the-line Tamburini F4 1000 models, the Iimitededition 300-off street bike bristling with technical innovation that forms the basis of the company's return to competition in the Superbike class, and which is named after the so-called Michelangelo of motorcycling, Massimo Tamburini. Once employed by Gallina after an acrimonious departure from Bimota, Tamburini created the trendsetting and very aerodynamic Suzuki RG500 TGA-I , which former World Champion Franco Uncini raced in GPs for Team Gallina. The two former partners in crime still talk all the time, especially now that Gallina sells the fruits of Tamburini's creative inspiration for MV Agusta. "When I heard about the variablelength intake from Massimo Tamburini, it sounded like something we'd enjoy developing," Gallina says. "Massimo and I go back a long way together, and I was looking for a bike we could do some work on and turn into a competitive Superbike racer. This was just what we wanted, so we did a deal with the factory to develop their prototype Superbike engines for them in the Italian Championship, as well as some wild-card World Superbike races. "We got the first bike only in March, when they began production - and although the engine was pretty good from the start, the chassis needed a lot of work to make it competitive. These are the only two MV Agusta Superbikes in the world which have been built so far, with the Tamburini variable-length intake system all the others you see racing are just Superstock bikes, which aren't allowed to have it under the price rules for that cate- well as in his single ride at the Misano round of the World series. There, after qualifying fastest of the quartet of Italian Wild-card riders (and just one second down on Noriyuki Haga's works Yamaha), Miki got mixed up in someone else's accident in the first race and suffered an engine blowup in the second one. A similar problem afflicted the Gallina MV in qualifying for the Italian Championship round at Mugello a month later, leaVing the team down to just a Single bike and short of setup time for the race, in which Miki finished ninth. But at least it was still running okay for me to ride it the next day in a track-day event on the fast, spectacular GP circuit in the hills above Florence - and to give a progress report on MV Agusta's comeback to racing after three decades of absence. The F4 Tamburini-based "MV Agusta F4 1000 Superbike by Gallina," to use its official title, is powered by the company's Stage I Superbike version of its trademark radial-valve 76 x S5mm, 16-valve, 998cc dohc engine, which in this first stage of development delivers I87 bhp at 12,SOO rpm, according to R&D boss Andrea Goggi, employing the Tamburini model's more radical street camshafts, but with an optimized drivetrain. Compression ratio is 14: I, thanks to a cylinder head that is skimmed 0.3mm but otherwise standard, with stock 29mm inletl25mm radial-steel valves and springs, and at this stage only polished and gasflowed rather than re-ported yet. The revised Mahle cylinder block's Nikasil-coated chrome bores house lighter two-ring slipper race pistons running on a stock crank with the same forged Bertolina steel conrods as standard - not yet titanium ones, which will come on the Evo engine the factory has under development, says Andrea Goggi. This employs sequentially operated twin injectors per cylinder (rather than the current street-derived single-injector setup currently used on the Gallina bike's motor, with the injector mounted at present just under the butterfly, rather than the top spray location of serious Superbike contenders such as the 999 Ducati), as well as larger throttle bodies and a dry clutch conversion. Also, the Stage 2 engine's Magneti Marelli ECU is another step up from the one on the current racer. "It's the same one used by Yamaha on Rossi's MotoGP bike, as well as the Ducati Desmosedici," Goggi says. The Gallina bike's engine also has a smaller air-cooled generator than standard, mounted in an alloy casing machined from solid billet, as well as magnesium engine covers to save a little more weight and help compensate for retention of the starter motor. In spite of the array of special Poggipolini carbon parts spread all over the bike, it still weighs in at 170kg [374 pounds] half-dry, eight kilos [16 pounds] over the four-cylinder SBK weight limit. However, the MV Superbike is also fitted with the unique, patented TSS (Torque Shift System) variable-length induction specifically catered for in World Superbike's new-for-2004 1000cc regulations, after its debut on the prototype F4 Tamburini street bike at the Milan Show two years ago just as thenFIM Superbike technical inspector Steve Whitelock was writing the new SBK rulebook! This exploits the vacuum pressure of the inlet manifold to load a linear actuator within the airbox, controlled by the ECU via a solenoid, to vary the intake length on an onloff basis - longer for more torque, shorter for top-end power. It does this by lifting the set of four differential-length intake trumpets (the two central ones are longer than the two outer ones, again to optimize the power and torque curves) directly off the top of the four 46mm throttle bodies from 7500 rpm onwards, to effectively shorten the inlet length for improved top-end power with the aid of a set of more radical cams and revised mapping. In street guise, compared to the 166 bhp of the stock F4 1000, the TSSequipped Tamburini delivers a claimed 173 bhp at the same I 1,750 rpm power peak, with maximum torque of 113 Nm [83.9 foot-pounds] delivered at 9200 rpm, compared to the standard bike's 109 Nm [80.'1 foot-pounds] at 10,200 rpm. So, it's the best of both worlds - 4 percent more horsepower, but with a fatter torque curve, with 3 percent more punch 1000 revs further down the rev scale. Settling aboard Miki Gallina's hot seat with the thick seat pad removed from the squab to stop him being pushed backward under the MV's quite impressive acceleration (well, compared to his Ducati ProTwin bike, I guess!), I felt instantly at home, with a riding position recognizably similar to my own F4 street bike, except for one thing: The Gallina Superbike feels definitely low-slung and more balanced in ride height than even a production MY, and certainly more so than Chris Walker's PSG-I Kawasaki yellow-peril Superbike I'd been riding at the same track just one month before, which gave a good benchmark for checking the MV's work-inprogress report card. gory, and in fact the F4 1000S that Uorges] Teuchert is racing in the German Superbike series is one of those. He came testing here at Mugello in the spring with us, and [Gallin;'s talented son] Miki was more than one second faster than him on our bike, even though Teuchert is clearly a better rider. So, we're doing a Superbike development year for ourselves and the factory, and would like to move up to the World Superbike series with them in 2006, if we can get outside sponsorship support to make it happen." Miki Gallina's best results so far this year in the Italian Superbike series have been a second (the first time out!) and a fourth on the MV Agusta against the fleet of Ducatiand Yamaha-mounted World Superbike privateers contesting this high-profile national championship. The MV has also suffered some inevitable teething problems with the development engine, sidelining him in a couple of Italian title races, as CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 28, 2005 29