Letter From Europe
LETTER FROM Europe
ROUNDUP
Italy's motorcycle industry never sleeps
Cagiva gently shook the motorcycle world with the 750 Paso at last year’s Milan motorcycle show, but when the bike becomes available late this summer in Europe, we may all be surprised once again. During a conversation with Ducati development chief Franco Farne, it became apparent that the Paso will be a
departure from previous Pantah-engined models in more than just its Tamburini-designed chassis.
Farne disclosed to me that the Paso is being developed with a completely new twin-choke Weber carburetor that has been designed especially for this bike. “It’s a singlebody unit placed between the cylinders, requiring the rear cylinder-head to be reversed as on the Elefant trailbike, so that the inlet ports face each other,” says Fame. Even though the first machines delivered will have the conventional air-cooled, two-valve engines as used on the 750F1 and Alazzurra models, he says that Cagiva is “working on a water-cooled, two-valve engine that will be introduced next, enabling us to meet the necessary noise and emission controls imposed internationally. This will improve the performance of the engine by reducing heat losses. Then, in due course, we plan to bring in the four-valve Pantah engine we are developing right now, which will also be watercooled. But that’s a long way off.”
What’s not known at present is if Cagiva plans to offer a production version of the two Ducati Pantah prototype engines raced at Daytona in the Battle of the Twins. Winner Marco Lucchinelli used an 850cc engine, while teammate Jimmy Adamo’s bike was fitted with an 818cc unit. With the strongly substantiated rumor that Cagiva boss Gianfranco Castiglioni has asked Ducati designer Fabio Taglioni to dust off his oil-cooled VFour prototype for possible further development, maybe even in liquidcooled form, things are humming at the Bologna factory.
At Moto Guzzi, the rumors of that three-cylinder, dohc, inline 750cc engine with liquid-cooling refuse to go away. I caught a possible glimpse of the prototype as I was whisked through the development shop of the Benelli plant in Pesaro on a strictly unofficial visit last summer. Much of the work on Guzzi models is done at Pesaro, with all machines up to and including the 650cc VTwins being built there. Since last summer, however, the engine has apparently been moved over to another company in the De Tomaso group, famed car manufacturer Maserati, which is conducting further (maybe final) development. Considering that Maserati recently unveiled a two-liter V-Six sportscar engine with no less than six valves per cylinder, one can’t help but speculate as to whether or not, in a couple of years’ time, we’ll be able to buy an 18-valve Guzzi Triple.
Güera is taking the Italian market by storm right now. Its sales increased by a whopping 83 percent in 1985, putting the small company up with its strong rival, Cagiva, in terms of overall sales. The 125cc Güera Arizona trailbike was Italy’s bestselling machine last year; and with its new-model lineup about to hit the streets, the company that claims to be Europe’s oldest surviving motorcycle manufacturer has made a big comeback in recent years.
Meanwhile, Vespa is putting the finishing touches on the first fuel-injected two-stroke engine to be mass-produced for road use. Though scooters may be an object of ridicule to some, in this instance, Vespa has brought off a technological coup of which even the Japanese will be envious. Experiments conducted in Europe have shown that by fitting direct fuel injection to a two-stroke engine, fuel consumption is about the same as with a fourstroke engine of the same size. The biggest drawback so far has been the need for a special high-pressure, constant-velocity fuel pump, one small enough to be fitted to a motorcycle. Working in conjunction with an Italian electronics company,
Vespa has produced such a pump.
Its 200cc, reed-valve scooter has the fuel injected directly into the cylinder instead of into the crankcase, as would be preferable with a highperformance engine; but the important thing is that the necessary technical advance in fuel-pump design has been made.
Short subjects
About the last bastion of fourstroke supremacy in motorcycle competition at world-class level used to be the rough, tough world of sidecar MX, where until recently, the parallel Twin, usually a British Weslake or a 1 OOOcc version of the XS750 Yamaha, ruled the roost. That’s all changed now. The engine in Husqvarna’s new Proof 2000 desert racer was developed in sidecar MX, but the real engine to beat is the Dutch-built EML, which has won the last two world titles for Swiss duo Hansi Bachtold and Fritz Fuss. Perhaps the largest-capacity two-stroke motorcycle engine in current production, the parallel-Twin 998cc EML is air-cooled. In spite of a claimed output of over 110 bhp at 5000 rpm, the reed-valve engine is flexible enough to make do with a four-speed gearbox, plus reverse. EML boss Henni Winkelhuis used up over 900 feet of exhaust pipe before hitting on the right set of pipes, which gives usable power from as low as 2700 rpm upwards, leading him to contemplate producing a street version later this year. Don’t get too excited, though, about anything other than sidecar applications.
That’s not the case with the sidecar MX engine produced by EML’s biggest rivals, Briton Robin RhindTutt’s Wasp concern, which manufactures its own all-alloy, dohc, 360-degree parallel Twin fourstroke. The Wasp engine is an eightvalver that yields a claimed 85 bhp with mild cams driven by a singlerow chain directly off the plain-bearing crank. Rhind-Tutt has already had the engine on the street in a three-wheeler, and though the fourspeed gearbox has one less ratio than ideal for solo use, there’s a plan to try it out on two wheels in the near future. Judging by the engine’s success in the sidecar MX scene, it’s reliable and well-nigh bulletproof.
Alan Cathcart
