E - Finmeccanica

H I S T O R Y
9/2010 FINMECCANICA MAGAZINE
his way to becoming the legend that
no rider has ever equalled and that
perhaps no-one ever will. The racing
division continued to rack up victories
but required huge financial investment.
Furthermore, the manufacture
of production models was not able to
repeat the early successes, although
the extraordinary sporting achievements
of MV models acted as a showcase
for the MV name. Italians of the
1960s economic boom period increasingly
set their sights on the car and
no longer wanted cheap motorcycles.
MV’s motorcycle division was continuously
being subsidised by income
from aeronautics, which was very successful
at the time (the agreement
with US company Bell in 1952 for the
construction under licence of AB47G
helicopters was a fundamental turning
point). The company continued to
struggle on until deciding in 1962 to
reduce the number of models in its
range and to cut production costs.
Despite the crisis, Count Agusta still
wanted to surprise, and in 1965 the
extraordinary 500 was finally produced:
in the meantime, the displacement
had increased to 600cc (a 750cc
model would be produced in 1970),
and the machine boasted a double
disk brake, 52 HP at 8,000 rpm and a
top speed of 177 km/h. Only 310 were
produced at a price of 1,060,000 lire,
twice that of a Guzzi V7 motorcycle.
On 2 February 1971, Domenico Agusta
died. He was succeeded in the company
by his brother Corrado. The company’s
financial problems increased to
such an extent that in early March
1973, 51% of the Varese-based company
was transferred to the stateowned
EFIM. Following the Count’s
death and as a result of the greater
contribution made by aeronautics,
motorcycles came to be of less importance
and less interest within Agusta,
and in 1978 production was halted
and the company put into liquidation.
The renaissance of the MV motorcycle
came about 20 years after the
Cascina Costa plant closed down
thanks to brothers Claudio and Giovanni
Castiglioni, who, after relaunching
Ducati, announced in
spring 1992 that they had bought the
MV Agusta brand. There were no motorcycles
or technical fittings to be
recovered, not even the GPs that
Agostini and his team mates once
raced in competitions. These unique
items were however saved thanks to
the restoration work carried out by a
group of former Agusta employees,
and now have pride of place in the
Cascina Costa museum. Claudio, the
more avid motorcycle enthusiast of
the Castiglioni brothers, spearheaded
the resurgence of MV: the motorcycles
would be built in Schiranna,
Lake Varese, not far from Cascina Costa.
To design the new range of MVs,
the great motorcycle manufacturer
Cagiva chose Massimo Tamburini, a
veritable genius of the motorcycle,
who had designed the Ducati 916,
the most beautiful sports superbike
of the second millennium. Tamburini
did not disappoint, and created another
masterpiece: the MV Agusta
F4. It fell to Giacomo Agostini to unveil
the model at the Milan Motorcycle
Show 1997, where the public were
truly amazed by such a pure, radically
sporty and uncompromising line,
just as a motorcycle built for speed
should be: in short, a truly Italian motorcycle.
It has a transverse inline
four-cylinder 750cc engine designed
by engineers at Cagiva with initial assistance
from Ferrari Engineering,
Maranello’s technology division, and
is notable for the use of radial valves,
a cassette gearbox, single-arm front
fork in light alloy and four-pipe undertail
exhaust. Then came the Brutale
750, the naked bike that also
bore the Tamburini signature. It immediately
became the benchmark in
the naked category thanks to the
beauty of its line and its absolute
performance. The resurgence of the
MV Agusta also came via the sale of
Ducati to US fund TPG (Texas Pacific
Group) in 1997. This injection of cash
served to support the new financial
and industrial commitment, but was
not enough to keep the company
afloat and craft the extraordinary
motorcycles that Castiglione had in
mind. Following an interval that saw
interest in MV from both the Piaggio
Group and Malaysian company Proton,
although the latter only remained
at the Lake Varese location
for little more than two years, in
mid-July 2008 Harley-Davidson announced
it had signed an agreement
to revive the MV Agusta and Cagiva
brands, leaving the management
and development of the new motorcycles
in the hands of Claudio Castiglioni.
This meant that plans that
had been on ice for some time could
now emerge from the computers of
the Varese-based engineers. These
included the new F4 1000 – the original
model has been in the catalogue
for 12 years, a record for sports bikes
– and the prototypes of the 3-cylinder
675cc naked and sports models.
But after just one year, the American
dream evaporated following the severe
crisis suffered by Harley Davidson,
which saw its sales plummet
from 350,000 motorcycles delivered
around the world in 2006 to 223,000
last year. This has led to the decision
to sell MV Agusta to concentrate on
their two-cylinder machines. However,
there are no fears for the future
at Schiranna given that in early August
Claudio Castiglioni regained
ownership of this glorious brand.
With Castiglioni at the helm, the
company will emerge from the crisis
even stronger than before to build
ever more beautiful, fast and exclusive
machines.
AERMACCHI ON TWO WHEELS:
THE ‘DOWN-TO-EARTH’ HISTORY
OF A CHAMPION OF FLIGHT
Cigno, Chimera, Ala d’Oro, Aletta.
These almost celestial names
symbolise the history of Aermacchi,
but it is a huge three-wheel truck
that represents the initial expression
of what the fast motorcycles
that would be built on Lake Varese
would come to embody. In its efforts
to convert to a peace-time industry,
Aermacchi decided, in common
with all other aeronautics
companies – as Piaggio did with its
Vespa – to embark on a route of
utilitarian transport and entrusted
its design for a three-wheel truck to
Ermanno Bazzocchi, one of its most
brilliant engineers. The designer
from Tradate, to whom we owe Aermacchi’s
exquisite trainer aircraft –
especially the MB-339 – in 1945 designed
the MB1, a revolutionary
mode of transport for its time: it
had a closed cabin, car-style steering
wheel, front suspension derived
from aircraft undercarriages, large
load capacity, and a 750cc 23-HP
4–stroke boxer engine. The truck
was a success and saved the company
from closing, after which it remained
in production for nearly 30
years. The first real Aermacchi motorcycle,
the Cigno, was unveiled at
the Milan Motorcycle Show in 1951.
Appearing at the height of the
scooter boom, it captured all the
scooter’s best features: plate bodywork
that did not dirty the rider’s
clothes, storage space and an economical
125cc 2-stroke engine that
travelled 40 km on one litre. These
functional qualities were supplemented
by the safety of driving a
motorcycle thanks to the large 17-
inch wheels. However, it was too
much of a hybrid machine to be really
pleasing: it was sold at a price
of 165,000 lire, one thousand more
than the Vespa. Aermacchi’s motorcycling
fortunes were slow to take
off: in 1956, the company unveiled
the Chimera 175, an innovative and
streamlined motorcycle, but it was
ahead of its time. Stripped of its unappreciated
livery, the Chimera
gave up its 4-stroke horizontal
cylinder engine to the lucky series
of motorcycles whose names began
with Ala: the Ala Verde 250 of 1959
was the sportiest Italian motorcycle
of its time, while the Oro launched
a generation of independent racers.
In 1960 came the agreement with
Harley-Davidson to build small
bikes, which gave rise to the 2-
stroke 125s such as the Aletta (1967)
and the Aermacchi GTS 350 Turistica.
In 1972, Aermacchi, which had
gone back to aircraft construction
as early as 1947, abandoned the motorcycle
for reasons connected both
with the decline in the sector and
its increasing commitment to
building military aircraft. The company
was now completely American-owned,
as AMF had acquired
Harley-Davidson in the meantime.
In 1978, AMF-Harley Davidson left
Schiranna, and in the autumn of
that year, Claudio and Gianfranco
Castiglioni identified the former
Aermacchi premises as the place to
establish Cagiva, build Swedish
Husqvarna off-road bikes and restart
production of beautiful MV
Agusta models.
Above and top left: the latest version of the F4.
Top: the Chimera 175 from 1956.
It has a 998cc 4-cylinder engine, maximum
Above and right: the Cigno 125, 1951
engine horsepower of 186 HP, traction control
and empty weight of 192 kg.
Top right: the MV Agusta Sport Ipotesi 350 of
1976. The line is designed by Giugiaro
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