Magni MV Italia Yesterday Once More

There’s certainly no company more entitled to produce a retro model using current MV Agusta hardware than Moto Magni, whose founder the late Arturo Magni was the architect of the historic Italian marque’s remarkable haul of 75 road racing World Championships in 26 years.

- Alan Cathcart

And that’s what Magni’s youngest son Giovanni, 61, has indeed successfully done over the past eight years in going back to the future by creating Moto Magni’s array of MV Agustapowered tribute models, combining today’s engineering and performance with the styling cues and spirit of yesteryear. First came the Storia (‘history’ in Italian), a classically-styled but super-striking four-cylinder Streetfighter which debuted in 2013,

Next Giovanni turned to the Brutale 800’s three-cylinder motor, and this time constructed an all-new Magni twin-shock frame to house this exquisite-looking powerplant which formed the basis of the Magni FiloRosso – Italian for ‘red line’ looking for all the world like the 500 triple that MV’s 15-time World champion Giacomo Agostini took to seven successive 500GP World titles from 1966-72.

From 1977 onwards all four-cylinder MV 750S frames were actually built by Arturo Magni’s newly founded own company, making the modernday connection even more plausible with a bike that, back then, was both a performance and a style icon of its era, complete with its chrome mudguards, red leather seat, and distinctively-shaped red-white-blue Disco Volante fuel tank.