MAGNI MV AGUSTA FILOROSSO
ROAD TEST
P80
by the profits of Count Agusta's helicopter fac-
tory, to a remarkable haul of 75 road racing World
Championships in 26 years.
DREAM COME TRUE
It's hard to think of any company more entitled
than Moto Magni to use a current MV Agusta
model to produce an authentic retro-racer, and
that's what the firm's director, Arturo's youngest
son Giovanni, 57, has indeed now done in going
back to the future in creating the Filorosso—Italian
for "red line," as in taking it to the limit. This exqui-
sitely designed, superbly executed and classically
striking road-legal three-cylinder racer-with-lights
looks for all the world like the 500 triple that MV's
15-time World Champion Giacomo Agostini took
to seven successive 500 GP World
titles from 1966-'72, before switch-
ing to Yamaha. But in fact, it's a
cleverly concocted creation, which
uses an unmodified modern liquid-
cooled Brutale 800 motor, sourced
together with the Eldor ECU and wiring harness
directly from today's MV Agusta factory, 30 miles
away on the shores of Lake Varese. This has been
wrapped by Giovanni in a TiG-welded open cradle
chrome-moly tubular steel frame using the engine
as a fully stressed component, that recalls Ago's
World title-winning triple's twin-loop chassis, com-
plete with box-section twin-shock swingarm and
18-inch wheels. These are in fact six-spoke cast
magnesium items as fitted to MV's later 350/500
four-cylinder GP racers and are the product of
the Magni family's other business, the EPM wheel
manufacturer run by Giovanni's elder brother Carlo.
"I always dreamed of making a modern Magni
MV, in the same way as my father did 40 years
ago when he started our company," says Giovan-
"I always dreamed of making a modern
Magni MV, in the same way as my father
did 40 years ago when he started our
company," says Giovanni Magni.
Hand built at the Magni
Moto factory in Italy, the
Magni MV Agusta Filorosso
has been a big hit in Europe
and there is talk of building
it in the MV Agusta factory.
