Etc.
ETC.
ITALIANS PLAY WAITING GAME
The lesson has finally sunk in about leaving too long a lead time between the show debut of a new model and its appearance in dealerships, leading to a fit of realism by the Italian manufacturers. Aprilia has its new RSB1000 V-Twin superbike ready, but won’t reveal it until much closer to the production start-up date. Asked when we might see it, company spokesman Massimo Fiorentino replied, “It’s at least 15 to 18 months too early. You’ll see it at the end of 1996.”
Similarly, the Cagiva Group, is holding back the release of its two new Ducati 944 models, in ST2 (two-valve 944cc) and ST4 (four-valve 916cc) form, both with 916-style tubular-steel frames. “We prefer to launch them when we’re ready to go to market,” said spokesman Martino Bianchi. Translation: Both bikes are ready to go, but the Ducati factory doesn’t have the production capacity to build them right now. That will change as soon as additional facilities in the Bologna plant are completed, around November.
Also awaited is the Cagiva F4 superbike, in 750 and 1000cc versions, both now slated for production in February as ’97 models. The F4 test mule has worn bodywork from a Cagiva 500 GP bike, but engineer Riccardo Rosa says that final design work is being carried out by Massimo Tamburini, who penned the 916. Asked if the F4 would resemble the 916, a horrified Rosa replied, “Absolutely not! This is a Cagiva, not a Ducati. It’s very important that it be different.”
Surprisingly, both Aprilia and Cagiva plan to debut their new models at this fall’s Cologne Show, which along with the Milan Show will now be held every year. Previously, the two shows alternated years.
BIG CHANGES AFOOT AT MOTO GUZZI
After a decade of slumber under De Tomaso, the reverse takeover of Moto Guzzi by Finprogetti is starting to pay dividends.
In addition to the new Centauro, Daytona 1000 production, put on hold last year to make room for the well-received Sport 1100, will resume on a limited basis.
Gianluca Lanaro, Guzzi’s marketing and sales manager, said that the bike will be completely restyled with bodywork similar to that of the Sport 1100. Just 100 Daytonas, all rated at 100 horsepower, will be built, none of which, unfortunately, will come to the U.S.
Additional plans include rebuilding Guzzi’s aged workshops and replacing the silent ranks of obsolete, hand-operated machine tools through 1996 and ’97. Lanaro adds, “Big changes are coming. In two or three years, you’ll see.”
AMERICA’S FIRST WORLD CHAMPION PASSES
Jack Milne, the 1937 Speedway World Champion, died at a hospital near his home in Southern California, December 6.
Milne, 88, suffered a heart attack last March, and returned to the hospital in late November. He died shortly thereafter.
Milne began racing speedway in Los Angeles prior to World War II, in the days before America became obsessed with television.
“It (speedway) was bigger then than it is now,” Milne told CW when last we spoke with him, in 1991. “There were twice as many tracks and pretty big crowds.”
In 1968, Milne was instrumental in speedway’s resurrection at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, where racing continues on a weekly basis each summer to this day.
