MV Agusta: Of Struggles And Of Legacies

I remember the first time I saw an MV Agusta F4. It was on telly in a Hollywood movie titled ‘Gone in 60 seconds’. The bike oozed appeal, draped in scarlet and silver with star-shaped gold wheels and four pipes under the rear seat. It was the most beautiful bike in the world. The MV Agusta F4 might be among one of the world’s most expensive bikes but like most automakers, it had very humble beginnings. And a noble one at that as well.

MV Agusta was conceived in 1945 Cascina Costa, a little hamlet of Italy. It was an arm of the Agusta Aviation company. Borne out of a noble cause to save jobs of the employees of Agusta in a post-World War II Italy Mv Agusta aimed to make affordable transportation solutions - an affordable motorcycle, in a country, reeling from the effects of war. The marque grew from making affordable motorcycles to highly sought after exotics like the F4 and the Brutale. At the twentieth anniversary of the F4, we look back at the ups downs this Italian outfit went through, creating a  legacy in the shape of the world’s most beautiful bikes.

Agusta Aviation Company was founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923. He died four years later, leaving the company in the hands of his wife and four children. Two of his sons, Count Vincenzo and Count Domenico, came up with the idea of starting a motorcycle company. They named it MV Agusta where MV stands for  Meccanica Verghera. Meccanica is Italian for Mechanics while Verghera is a small hamlet where the first bikes were manufactured. They started with small-displacement (125cc-150cc) café-racer type motorcycles in 1945. MV Agusta sold these bikes through the 50s and 60s after which they shifted focus towards larger capacity bikes -- 250cc  bikes which evolved into much bigger motorcycles over the years.

Back in the day, a manufacturer’s pedigree was known by their performance on the racetrack. MV Agusta dominated quite a lot of them, thanks to the passion the owners had for racing. Right from the very beginning (1948), MV Agusta was winning small racing series across Europe. A major breakthrough came with the 1952 Isle of Man TT when British rider Cecil Sandford piloted an MV Agusta 125 to victory and thereafter went on to win the first world championship for the manufacturer.

MV Agusta carved a niche for itself in the 350 and 500cc classes. In 1957, the increased cost of racing forced many Italian motorcycle companies to withdraw from the championship. MV Agusta soldiered on and went on to win 17 consecutive world championships in the 500cc class. 

Count Domenico passed away in 1971, and without his guiding wisdom, the company began a downhill run in both racing and sales. MV won its last Grand Prix in 1976 and quit racing thereafter. Management resorted to public funding to keep the company afloat but was asked to quit the motorcycling industry in order to sort out its financial position. After dominating the racing scene for so long, MV Agusta shut shop in 1980.

In 1991, MV Agusta was bought by Cagiva - another Italian motorcycle company. They introduced the first MV Agusta after nearly two decades - a 750cc inline four supersport motorcycle that would come to be known as the most beautiful motorcycle in the world. The F4 was conceptualised by Claudio Castiglioni and designed by the Michelangelo of motorcycle design, Massimo Tamburini, in 1989. However, the bike only came into production in 1997, thanks to assistance from a bunch of Italians from a totally different playground, cars. It was Ferrari who helped design the motor.

Twenty years later, the F4 has evolved and how! The F4’s success also afforded MV Agusta to expand its portfolio to bikes like the Brutale 800 and 1090, F3 675 and 600 and the Rivale.

 

MV Agusta still faces a colourful legacy. It was in the news last year that stated the manufacturer was under a debt of 40 million euros (around Rs 282 crore) even after Mercedes AMG investing into it for a 25 per cent stake. However, with the news of fresh investment pouring in, the company states that its future is secure. 

In the last 26 years, MV Agusta has seen six changes in ownership, ultimately returning to the original owners, the Castiglioni family. MV Agusta is an extraordinary story of hard work and perseverance. While the future cannot be predicted, the legacy of MV has etched in the hearts and minds of motorcycling enthusiasts thanks to bikes such as the F4.