A2 ASSASSIN ADRILIA RS 457

Good things do come in small packages, as Aprilia's A2 eligible RS 457 goes to prove

- DANGEROUS

With more than 50 world titles to its name and numerous GP wins this season alone, Aprilia is one of few marques that let its achievements do the talking. So, when you're gifted with the chance to hear how the Italian brand's engineers go about their business, there's no better time to shut up and listen, as I did during the during the presentation of the all-new RS 457 at Modena, in Italy. Long, in-depth and littered with facts that would fry even the smartest of brains, this was my chance to soak up the workings-out of the new model and grasp its road to fruition that arguably could have come about a whole lot quicker, cheaper and sneakier by simply sleeving down the tried-and-tested RS 660...but that's just not the Aprilia way.

Fixated on goals and the chance to lift the bar in the hotly contested A2 sportsbike market, there were two sets of numbers that mattered above all else for the firm from Noale: 175 and 47. To elaborate, the lightest an A2 machine can weigh is 175 kilos, which is exactly what the Aprilia hits the scales at. And the 47... well, that refers to the peak amount of bhp a bike of this class can produce at the aforementioned weight. In other words, the RS 457 could not be any lighter or any more powerful, but there's much more to this motorcycle than those two factors alone.