1972 Remembering the Moto Guzzi V8 - 5-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article

Description

1972 Remembering the Moto Guzzi V8 - 5-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article
Original, Vintage Magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
• The machine was complex, the
name simple. The V8. Motorcy-
cling plays at numbers; there have
been singles, twins, triples, fours,
fives and sixes. But in the num-
bers game, eight is zenith. The V8.
Those five characters label one
thing, and one thing only: Moto
Guzzi’s 500cc, four-stroke, water-
cooled, twin double-overhead
camshaft, 12000-rpm roadracing
V8, which mounted eight carbu-
retors, eight ignition coils and
eight exhaust pipes, and which
bristled with oil lines, water pipes,
hoses and ignition wires. Con-
ceived in 1954 and raced through
1957, the V8 —Moto Guzzi be-
lieved—would break the Gilera
grip on the 500 World Cham-
pionship, shove aside MV Agusta,
the pretender to the crown, and
establish Guzzi hegemony in the
500 Grand Prix classics. But be-
fore the V8’s imposing technology
could finally shape and control
race results, Moto Guzzi with-
drew from international racing,
and the V8 passed into legend.
Bill Lomas remembers. He
rode the V8. Lomas, twice 350...
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