Renaissance of Laverda

Renaissance of Laverda

ROUNDUP

NEWS FROM THE LAVERDA factory in northern Italy indicates that the rescue plan for the bankrupt company is a lot more serious than most people had thought.

Serving notice that Laverda intends to resurface with a bang, not a fizzle, are a number of interesting projects, including new models shown recently at the Milan Show (see Roundup, CW, February, 1990). The hottest of those would look to be a 700cc, dohc, eight-valve parallel-Twin engine, wearing Weber/ Marelli fuel injection and delivering 70 horsepower at the rear wheel.

Look for Laverda to fit this engine not only to the dual-purpose bike shown at Milan, but to a roadster chassis, as well. Other news is that the venerable, three-cylinder RGS1000 will be brought back.

But these are only short-term solutions, and Laverda chief engineer Angelo Ferrari already is well advanced on a new range of engines for the 1990s. These will be based on the lOOOcc V-Six endurance racer which made a solitary appearance at the 1978 Bol d’Or. The fourcam engine already has a modern four-valve head design, so should be capable of satisfying existing emissions regulations, and would be a powerful flagship from which to launch the renaissance of the Laverda marque. The projected debut venue for the V-Six supersports Laverda is the Milan Show in 1991.

The company also intends to slice the V-Six engine two ways to produce two other engines: a 500/600cc V-Twin, and a 750cc inline-Three, both with dohc, four valves per cylinder and liquid cooling. These engines will be used to power a variety of sport, enduro and custom models scheduled to appear in late 1990.

—Alan Cathcart