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Cascina Costa Beauties
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MV Agusta Racing Classics
Ray Thursby
10/01/2005
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David Gooley
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The machines that
brought so much glory to Cascina
Costa were seldom innovative. Though
MV eschewed traditional chain-type final
drives for shafts at times,
experimented with a 500cc 6-cylinder powerplant, and
tried out a
flat-four boxer engine toward the end of its racing days, the
company
was most successful with its simple—albeit superbly conceived—2-, 3-,
and 4-cylinder racers. Another key to MV’s success was perseverance;
other
companies came into racing, stayed for a while, then left. The
MVs were there
year after year.
Racing, however, could not
keep MV healthy. The motorcycle
market in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s was
cyclical. Increasing prosperity in Italy
brought a boom in automobile
sales and a corresponding slump in the demand
for two-wheelers. MV
tried hard to accommodate changing times, but even the
sportbike boom
of the later 1960s and early ’70s—and the introduction of
excellent 600
and 750cc models—did not bring in sufficient funds to keep
production
going.
Count Agusta’s death in 1971 seemed to take the heart out
of the company. After an agreement with Bell in the United States to
manufacture
helicopters, motorcycle production tapered off. The
Castiglioni family—which
owns Cagiva and Ducati—acquired the rights to
build MV Agusta motorcycles in
1992, and has since offered new models
under that name. But the last “real”
Cascina Costa MV Agusta was built
in 1978 and delivered to a customer in
1980.
During the years
when MV made the transition from motorcycles to
aviation, the surviving
racing bikes from the factory’s extensive museum were
being stored in a
warehouse on the grounds. In 1986, a space shortage prompted
the
company to offer all remaining bikes and parts for sale. While competing in
a French motorcycle race, Jeff Elghanayan saw an ad for the sale and
began
negotiations to buy everything in a single lot. His attorney,
Italian-American
Roberto Iannucci, negotiated with MV on his behalf,
and eventually
consummated a sale. Included in the treasure trove were
12 complete MV racers,
plus frames, engines, and other components for
six more motorcycles, plus a
substantial quantity of spare parts.
Elghanayan chose to keep three machines
plus spares for himself, and
sold the rest.
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