FEATURE
TAMBURINI T12 MASSIMO
P78
in his MV equity after the Harley
takeover, he immediately began
turning the ideas he'd been jug-
gling around in his mind for the
previous 36 months into reality.
Powered by a four-cylinder
BMW S 1000 RR engine, the
Tamburini T12 Massimo⎯T for
Tamburini, 12 because the proj-
ect officially began in 2012, and
Massimo as a play on words,
since besides being his fore-
name it also means "ultimate"
in Italian⎯was intended to be
the ne plus ultra of performance
motorcycling⎯the most refined,
most uncompromisingly effec-
tive and most downright beauti-
ful sport bike the world had yet
seen. It was a design, which a
combination of commercial and
budgetary restrictions, as well as
ever more onerous homologa-
tion rules, had thus far prevented
Tamburini from producing, as
the ultimate expression of his
creative passion.
Tragically, though,
with the T12 project
well underway, in
September 2013 Mas-
simo Tamburini was
diagnosed with lung
cancer, leading to his
early death in April
2014, aged 70. Though
he'd worked hard to
try to complete the
bike before he passed away, it
wasn't to be. Instead, it was left
to his son Andrea, 47, to bring
the project to fruition, himself a
talented designer who'd worked
alongside his dad officially since
1988, after looking over his
shoulder from a very young age.
Indeed, Andrea was originally
responsible for creating the MV
Agusta Corse aftermarket
catalog dripping with magne-
sium and carbon fiber goodies,
developed in an adjacent unit
to his father's CRC workshop in
San Marino. But after his dad's
departure from MV, Andrea
turned that company over to
Harley-Davidson and founded
Tamburini Corse in San Marino
with the support but no involve-
ment of his father, continuing to
make special parts and restyled
bodywork mainly for MVs, but
also some Ducati models. It was
Tamburini Corse which in March
this year broke the news via its
Massimo (left) and
son Andrea within the
MV Agusta confines
during 2004.
