MV Agusta 750 F4 Motorcycle

If ever there was a bike that epitomized the Italian love of glamour, speed and all things mechanical it was the 750 F4 with which MV Agusta was reborn in 1999. The F4 was gorgeous and brilliantly engineered, from the tiny twin headlights in its fairing's nose all the way to the four cigar-shaped tailpipes that emerged from beneath its sculpted tailpiece. It had performance, handling, and a fascinating history.

MV Agusta, one of the world's most famous marques, was back in style. The old MV firm from Gallarate, north of Milan, had won 17 consecutive 500cc world championships and built some of the world's fastest and most exotic roadgoing superbikes before production ended in the early 1980s.

The marque appeared dead until revived by Cagiva boss Claudio Castiglioni. After almost a decade of intermittent development, design genius Massimo Tamburini completed a bike to rank with the mighty Ducati 916, his previous creation.

The F4's innovative chassis combined a ladder- like tubular steel main frame with cast swingarm pivots. On the limited-edition Serie Oro (Gold Series) F4, of which only 300 units were built, these cast parts were made from magnesium instead of the aluminium used for the mass-produced F4 S. The forks, especially developed by Japanese specialist Showa, were of an unprecedented 49mm diameter. The six-piston brake calipers were developed with Nissin; the tyres specially created by Pirelli.

Tamburini's Cagiva Research Centre (CRC) designed the bodywork, which was made from lightweight carbon-fibre. Ferrari engineers collaborated in the early design of the F4's 749cc engine, a liquid-cooled, 16 valve inline four that differed from Japanese rivals by having radial valves, which MY's engineers said gave better breathing.

The F4 was also the only roadgoing bike to have a racebike style removable 'cassette' gearbox. Tamburini designed the complex exhaust system after dismantling and studying the exhaust of Castiglioni's Ferrari F40.

The fuel-injected motor's peak output was 126bhp, so the 750cc F4 did not match open-class superbikes for outright speed. But the bike revved to 13,300rpm, made an improbably glorious exhaust note, and was seriously fast. The four cylinder unit was smooth and sophisticated, too. It pulled crisply at low revs, and its six-speed gearbox was slick. There was no great step to the power delivery, just a steady increase as the yellow-faced rev-counter's needle swept round the dial and the F4 headed for its top speed of over 160mph (257kmlh).

Handling was superb, at 4061b (l84kg) dry the Serie Oro was very light. Its short wheelbase and racy steering geometry combined with the top quality frame and suspension to make the bike wonderfully agile yet also very stable. At high speed in a straight line the bike was unshakeable, yet it could also be snapped into slow turns with the lightest of pressure, and was easy to flick from side to side. The brakes were very powerful, too, needing just a gentle squeeze of the lever to make the bike stop with massive force.