MV Agusta Road Test - Brutale 1000 Prototype 2020

First ride by any journalist on the heavily revamped 2020 version of the four-cylinder MV Agusta Brutale 1000 Hyper Naked model in pre-production prototype guise

- ​Alan Cathcart

At the EICMA Milan Show last November, the dazzling new MV Agusta Brutale 1000 Serie Oro was elected as “The most beautiful motorcycle of the show” by over 16,000 voters - against such equally new high performance desirables as the Ducati Panigale V4 R, the BMW S1000RR and Aprilia’s RSV4 1100 Factory.

Production of the new Brutale won’t commence until late August after MV workers return from this year’s summer break, but with Russian investor Timur Sardarov injecting over 60 million Euro’s to buy a controlling percentage in MV Agusta’s holding company from previous owner Giovanni Castiglioni (who remains President of the firm, with Sardarov as Chairman/CEO, and former Ducati technical guru Massimo Bordi returning to MV as a consultant), the Italian trophy marque finally has wind in its sails. It has a slew of ultra-desirable new models on their way to production within the next 12 months, with the radically re-engineered Brutale 1000 up first, followed by the F4 Claudio and the Superveloce 800 all displayed at EICMA 2018, and other projects in the pipeline, including a turbocharged triple and the resurgence of the Cagiva brand as MV’s EV/electric division. The chance to visit the MV factory on the shores of Lake Varese to become the first outsider to sample the prototype next-gen Brutale 1000 lifted the curtain on what MV has in store for us under Sardarov’s direction – and it seems to be definitely well worth waiting for….