Talk Morgan Forums Community General Photo Gallery We love V-Twins !

Doe to recent discussions about TM members' interest in motorbikes and Cafe Racers et.. I thought I would declare my weakness for two wheels and V-Twin engines.

Meet (most of) the N-M stable.

If you have a bike, post it on TM

The Red is one of my favorite guzzi. The 4 valve is a very WILD! Do you still have a 18 inch rear wheels?

Cracking - some lovely wheels in those three photos

My dad used to have a Guzzi and my first ride on the back of it left a lasting impression.

There is little doubt that the explosive acceleration was part of what helped turn me into a petrolhead.

I love the red one in your photo.

Hi, yes I kept a 18" rear wheel when I changed to the Dymag wheels. Would have been interesting to have gone for a wider rim and 17" diameter, but my budget was limited at the time. (Would require a modification to the drive shaft to fit...I seem to remember)

As you can see this Daytona 1000 is the limited addition 'Racing' model from 1996.
I think there are less than 10 in the UK.
The 'C' kit engine is fantastic. Full of energy and character and the gear change is very sweet too for a 5 speed box.

I was told that the 'Racing' was built at Magni and the engines are blueprinted. Not sure if this is true...Rudolfo do you know anything about this ?

Cheers,
N-M

Stunning bikes. Thanks for posting.
Makes me nostalgic for my red le mans mkiii

The Daytona 1000 Racing 'C' engine had Carrillo rods, forged pistons, 'C' cams and cam followers, Termignoni silencers and several other small differences in preparation. ('C' stands for 'Corsa' or Racing in English)

The developement was done in conjunction with John Wittner. It was his team that won at the Battle of the twins (BOTT) at Daytona using a highly modified Le Mans in a new type of frame.

At the invitation of De Tomaso Dr John spent some time at Mandello working with the Moto Guzzi developement team. The engine itself was projected by Umberto Todero but never put into production. Dr John, starting from the prototype, developed the final production version. The frame is actually a copy of the race winning frame modified for road use.

Dr John's team, with the rider Doug Braunek, won again at Daytona 1987 with a race version of the new engine and this naturally gave the name Daytona to the eventual production bike.

The Daytona was produced in 4 versions from 1991 to 1999. About 100 of the limited edition Daytona 1000 Racing were produced in 1994/95.

Magni had nothing to do with the developement of the Moto Guzzi Daytona but also produced a model named Daytona using the same engine. A version of this bike performed very well at Daytona in 1998. Ridden by Japanese Teruo Fukuda in the BOT F1 race it acheived 4th place and in the Sound of Thunder/BEARS held second place behind the Britten until a fall in the last lap due to an engine failure.

Hi Peter,
Thanks for the info.
Can you tell me if you got the last bit of information from a book or direct from the factory, because my bike is date stamped 1996 together with its production number.

I was told by a dealer who also had a 'Racing' of his own, that the 'Racing' engine was blueprinted and assembled at Magni.

Also, that there were less than 100 actually built despite the plaque stating 'of 100'. I think he said that there were about 86 built in total.
Twelve came to the UK, but several have been written off and one or two have been sold out of the uk to overseas collectors.

Do you have a contact at the factory that can validate the accuracy of this information ?

Thanks,
N-M

Unfortunately contacts at the factory are very limited these days because the company Moto Guzzi S.p.A. no longer exists. Moto Guzzi is now a brand of the Piaggio Group (just like Vespa) which is owned by Immsi S.p.A. All administration of the Group is now centralised outside of Mandello. The once proud Moto Guzzi, that in its heyday manufactured nearly the entire motorcycle, is reduced to about 100 employees that are doing final assembly of parts manufactured elsewhere.

The only way to truly verify the bike is to request a Certificate of Origin from Moto Guzzi. The lady responsible for the historic register has now retired and I would not now know who to ask. It is possible that the Guzzi World Club will be taking over this task.

I have, however, been able to verify an interesting historical fact. Since I know Giovanni Magni I gave him a call. It seems that Guzzi did not want to include this run of 100 motorcycles in the normal production line and contracted Magni to do the final assembly. Giovanni tells me that he did not do any work on the motors and assembled the complete run of 100 over a period of three or four months. He can not recall the details but believes it would have been in 1994 or '95. In any case they were all assembled in one batch.

So as you can see there is a very small element of truth in the story but Giovanni assures me he did not touch the motors, they arrived already assembled. The total 100 were actually manufactured.

It may well be that the numbered plates were issued by the factory at the time the bikes were actually shipped and the last could well have been shipped by Moto Guzzi in 1996.

Interesting information Peter. Thank you.
Looking back through my scrapbook I can see that the Racing was announced in a 'Moto Guzzi Flash' factory marketing brochure.
At first I thought it was dated 1996, but I can see from an article on the back page that it must have been some time around late autumn of 1995.
I can also see that the 'Racing' was road tested in MCN in March 1996, so that would mean that the Racings would, like you have mentioned, have been manufactured in 1995, but as far as I am aware all the UK bikes have 1996 stamped on them. I guess that makes sense as they were only available to purchase from the very end of 1995 or early 1996.

Quite pricy at £10,600 in 1996, but I heared recently that one in the UK was sold for about the same price last year. Not bad depreciation figures !