Moto Morini Lives!
MOTO MORINI LIVES!
ROUNDUP
IS THERE NO END TO THE number of legendary Italian motorcycle marques that can be brought back from the dead? MV Agusta, Mondial, Benelli...the list goes on. And now we can add Moto Morini.
At presstime, Moto Morini was hard at work putting the final touches on its first new model in a decade-a stylish naked bike powered by an 1180cc V-Twin engine-for its debut at the Bologna Motor Show.
If enthusiasts remember Moto Morini at all, it’s for the company’s humble Heronheaded pushrod V-Twins, offered in 350cc (“3'/2”) and 500cc displacements in sport and adventure-touring guises throughout the 1970s and ’80s. But the Bologna-based firm has a glorious history that rivals any of its peers.
Founded by Alfonso Morini in 1946, Moto Morini attained considerable success in international roadracing. Emilio Mendogni won two 125cc Grands Prix during the 1952 season and Tarquinio Provini won four 250cc GPs in 1963 before losing the title by 2 points. The great Giacomo Agostini also rode for Morini in 1964. but by then the 250cc Single was being eclipsed by the Japanese Multis, and the firm soon withdrew from racing.
Alfonso’s daughter Gabriella took control of Moto Morini after his death in 1969, and managed the company until 1987 when she sold it to the Cagiva Group. Sadly, the marque has been moribund ever since. In 1993 the original factory in Bologna shut its doors, and in ’96 Cagiva sold Moto Morini along with Ducati to the Texas Pacific Group.
It wasn’t until Moto Morini was purchased by Morini Franco Motori SPA, the enginebuilding company founded by Alfonso’s nephew in 1954, that progress began in earnest.
First came a new engine. Designed by the staff of Franco Lambertini, Morini’s principal engine designer from 1970-89, the 87-degree V-Twin goes by the nickname Bialbero CorsaCorta, meaning it’s a short-stroke, twin-cam race motor. The specification sheet shows liquid-cooling, four valves per cylinder, combination chain/gear cam drives and radically over-
square ( 107 x 66mm) cylinders fed by a Magnetti-Marelli fuel-injection system with twin 54mm throttle bodies. Compression is said to be 11.8:1 and claimed output is 140 horsepower at 8500 rpm and 90 foot-pounds of torque at 6500 rpm.
Although the completed motorcycle has yet to be seen by anyone outside the factory, illustrations and photographs taken of a prototype undergoing road testing show that the engine is harnessed by a steel-trellis frame reminiscent of the MV Agusta Brutale’s, with twin mufflers tucked in under the seat a la the Ducati MH900e. The minimalist styling was penned by Rodolfo Frascoli of Marabese Design, and recalls nothing so much as a 1990s Suzuki Ban-
dit 400, which is by no means meant to be an insult.
Helping with chassis development is none other than Italian World Superbike racer (and Bologna resident) Pier-Francesco Chili, who knows a thing or two about getting a V-Twin sportbike to handle.
Where the project goes from here is anyone’s guess, and who knows if the bike will ever be offered in the USA? But you’ve got to love how the Italians describe the project: “It is a reinterpretation, in a modern key, of that Morini spirit that has always sought to strike the right balance between aesthetics and mechanics.”
Of course it is.
Brian Catterson
