Moto Morini V-Twin Takes Shape
MOTO MORINI V-TWIN TAKES SHAPE
FRANCO LAMBERTINI IS pleased as punch. After a 15-year hiatus, he’s back with Moto Morini, the Italian bike-maker for whom he designed the engine for which he is best known: the belt-cam-drive, multi-plate-clutch, Heron-headed, 350cc V-Twin that debuted in the 1972 3½and went on to power a number of other models.
Lambertini, a veteran of Formula One/sports-car team Serenissima, Ducati (after Morini was acquired in 1987 by the Cagiva Group) and Piaggio, is now hard at work on another V-Twin to be developed in four displacements ranging from 650 to more than lOOOcc.
Of course, Lambertini’s paycheck isn’t coming from the original Moto Morini.
Its sister company, Franco Morini, a Bologna-based manufacturer of smalland medium-displacement scooter engines-it also helped develop the threecylinder Tornado engine for Benelli-now owns the rights to the Moto Morini name.
According to Lambertini, the new engine is ultra-compact, and features a unique monolithic crankcase inclusive of the cylinders.
The case is open on the left side and both the gearbox and crank assembly are introduced through it, cassette-style.
The cylinder barrels are interchangeable to make displacement selection easy. Lambertini came up with two bore and two stroke measurements, combining them to obtain the four displacements.
The 87-degree Vee-angle saved a few millimeters in the engine’s overall length, while another 3 centimeters were saved by one of Lambertini’s technical tricks: The crankshaft axis does not go through the point where the axes of the two cylinders intersect. Instead, it runs slightly inboard of said intersection, which not only helps make the engine more compact, but also creates a 90-degree firing sequence and superior balance, Lambertini claims. The compact combustion chamber has an included valve angle of just 21 degrees.
Lambertini says Moto Morini will not go racing any time soon. Instead, it will focus on attaining solid performance, superior reliability and serviceability.
Bruno de Prato
