Pure Magic

Back in 1973 the MV750 Sport was a street-legal version of the world’s fastest and most glamorous race bike. Roland Brown discovers that glamour didn't fade with time.

These days we’re so used to supersports bikes being closely related to MotoGP racers that it’s easy to forget that near-racetrack levels of style, technology and performance have not always been available straight off the showroom floor. Back in the late 60s, for example, while MV Agusta’s bellowing fours were dominating 500cc Grand Prix racing, there was no remotely similar model in the Italian marque’s range of mostly small-capacity machines.

The 750 Sport ended all that. Launched at the Milan Show in 1969, this four-cylinder superbike was gorgeously styled, hand-built at great expense and clearly related to the works racers that had been ridden to glory over the years by aces including John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostini.

MV’s exotic four differed from the racebikes in several key ways that ensured its performance was not truly comparable. But, even so, the 750 Sport was essentially a street-legal version of the world’s fastest and most glamorous racebikes. And those few fortunate riders who got to ride one enjoyed an experience that no other roadster could provide.

That’s still true more than 30 years later, as a blast on the immaculate machine owned by MV Owners’ Club chairman Alan Elderton confirmed. From the moment the beautiful red, white and blue Agusta fired up with a rustling from its dohc air-cooled engine and an even louder roar from its slender four-pipe exhaust system, there was no doubt that this was a memorably charismatic motorbike.
Back in the late 60s, the reason MV hadn’t already built a sporty road-going four was not just that the firm’s boss, Count Domenico Agusta, refused to spend the money to develop one, but that he didn’t want his factory team’s remarkable racing record devalued by less successful MV race teams. The firm from Gallarate, near Milan, had unveiled a 500cc four-cylinder prototype called the R19 Turismo as long ago as 1950, but it had never been produced.

When MV did belatedly introduce a road-going multi, in 1967, it was a tourer called the 600 Four, which could hardly have been more different in style and spirit from the racers. With high handlebars and a softly tuned, shaft-drive engine, it produced just 52bhp and could barely crack the ton. And its large, rectangular headlight and bulbous black fuel tank made for a curiously-styled bike that had no chance of commercial success given its sky-high price.

Very few 600s were built, making it extremely rare and desirable now. But, in 1969, Count Domenico finally relented, and unveiled a bike to set MV race fans’ hearts pounding (even if very few could possibly hope to afford one). The 750 Sport was beautiful, with a curvaceous petrol tank, red, white and blue paintwork, clip-on handlebars, rearset footrests, a humped seat and a four-pipe exhaust system ending in slender chrome-plated megaphone pipes.
Its engine was heavily based on that of the 600, having 7mm wider pistons that gave oversquare 65 x 56mm dimensions and a capacity of 743cc. A higher, 9.5:1 compression ratio, larger exhaust valves and the use of four instead of just two 24mm Dell’Orto carburettors lifted peak output to 65bhp at 7900rpm.

Classic Motorcycle Mechanics June 2005 edition

End of sample | Subscribe | Find Back Issues