I enjoy your website very much, read it every week, and must apologize for writing only to nit pick an article.
Your article on Moto GP got on my nerves... Lacking in important info, research, insight ...
I think it’s important to note that the Ducati MotoGP challenge represents the first important "500cc" involvement by an Italian marque since 1975, when MV Agusta pulled out (perhaps Cagiva's aborted attempt in the 80's, or Aprilia's in the 90's might qualify, too). More than that, it's also, I believe, the first challenge of any seriousness by a non-Japanese motorcycle firm.
Perhaps the author might have pointed out the reasons for the absence of the once mighty Italian (and English) teams. By the end of the sixties, the Italian factories were in serious financial difficulties, many would vanish completely. Racing was no longer viable -- especially against the limitless budgets of the Japanese factories, who continued to push ahead development of their large displacement two-strokes.
Another fact - MV Agusta was the last four-stroke to win a race (in 1975) up until the rules were changed in 2001(?)(can you imagine allowing a 500cc two-stoke to race against a 500cc four-stoke? Gee, I wonder which is going to have an advantage?)…
All these points are relevant and important to touch upon because too often, the victories of the Italian marques are discussed as quaint, irrelevant -- quickly wiped out once the mighty Japanese factories showed the world how racing bikes should be made. I would say that the Japanese are the ones who have an easy ride -- again, with not only Italian, but the majority of European makes forced to withdraw from racing by the mid-seventies.
Phil Read takes his MV Agusta 500cc 4C to victory at Imola in 1974. This was MV's last championship-winning season.
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The author's implication that Ducati's record in MotoGP has been poor up to know is pretty bizarre. Ducati has rarely even raced in this category -- I believe only in the late sixties, when it played second fiddle to the Agusta's... The current Ducati MotoGP campaign has gone amazingly well, especially considering that it has a much smaller budget than the Japanese teams. In their first year, Ducati had poles and a victory. Last year, they had a reasonable chance of winning a title until serious injuries to both their riders and various Bridgestone tire disasters destoyed their season.
As the author points out this year things look even better for Ducati. I'm not surprised that pundits are pulling out the old 'excessive horsepower excuse' as in a documentary on Ferrari I watched recently, a sad and somewhat bitter Mauro Forghieri explained that whenever Ferrari did well, everyone always said it was because it had 'tanti cavalli'.
Again, keep up the good work…
Pete G.
Michael T. Lynch responds--
I'm sorry Peter found my piece, "Lacking in important info, research, insight..." It was meant to be a short piece, consumed primarily by Italian car lovers, some of whom have a passing interest in motorcycles. I commented on something exciting about Italian machinery that's happening currently. It was not meant to be a treatise on the rise of the Japanese in international motorcycle racing and the concurrent fall of the Brits and the Continentals.
I believe I made clear that Ducati's challenge was the first real threat by the Italians in the top class since the days of the MV Agustas in the mid-1970s. That is, after all, the historic significance of what is unfolding.
Regarding the inequality of the two-strokes having equal displacement to the four-strokes in the GP formula until recently, there was nothing stopping the Brits and Continentals from building two-strokes of their own, but none took up the challenge. While one cannot dispute the size of the Japanese factories' budgets, I believe I've seen a Super Aguri pass a Toyota in auto Grand Prix racing more than once this year. Budgets do not automatically bring wins. The Japanes have had little success in auto Grand Prix racing with complete cars of their own, no matter what their budget. They have usually found their way to the podium in someone else's chassis. I also do not believe Ducati's sponsor, Marlboro, is known for underfunding.
Peter's statement that connoisseurs find the past victories of the great Italian marques, "quaint, irrelevant", is patently ridiculous. The prices paid at auction show post-World War II Italian GP machinery to be the highest priced except for a very few Japanese bikes with impeccable provenance -- something like an ex-Hailwood Honda 297 Six. The reason for high Italian vintage prices is precisely the memory of the great victories of the past.
I make no "implication that Ducati's record in motoGP (sic) has been poor up to know (sic)..." I simply state that Ducati has never won a championship at the Grand Prix level. I might add something that the article did not mention -- that includes every displacement class that has ever been contested in motorcycle GP racing. My comment was a flat statement of fact and there was no "implication" nor judgment attached.
As far as the "pundits...pulling out the old 'excessive horsepower excuse'" for Ducati's current success, I would ask Peter if he has watched any MotoGP race this year. At the beginning of the season, there was absolutely no doubt that Ducati had a substantial horsepower advantage. The ease of Stoner's straightaway passes were what made up for his sub-par cornering grip. I pointed out that Ducati has made strides in solving the latter problem.
I realize every reader approaches a piece with a different perspective. It is rare, however, to have one's words perceived to mean exactly the opposite of what was intended.
Michael T. Lynch
Tracking the beautiful brute…
I saw in AutoWeek that Marty Christensen's old "Mexico" coupe sold for $5.8 million at the Maranello auction. (I remember when he was trying to sell it for $4,000 and neither Dick Bosley nor I had the money! I'd just gotten out of the Army).
Beautiful brute, the Pininfarina 340/375 Competition Berlinetta.
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Do you have a handle on who bought it? I would like to keep in touch with the car as I lost track of it for years. After Marty gave it to the University of Wisconsin, Dean Batchelor had it for a while, then I heard of it being restored in Germany for an airline pilot, then Shirley had it. While it may have been a truck at times, it was a hoot to drive.
Keep it up.
Dick Irish
Loving the Lele
Love your story Lulu of a Lele.. !
In the early 70's I received a solicitation from Iso Rivolta, brochures & info to open a dealership of that make in Massachusetts. And last week I looking at slides from the 1972 Watkins Glenn F1 GP, I found one of Howden Ganley in his "Yardley" racing suit!
Serge at work..
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I have sent you a picture of me--- I am performing valves adjustment on ex Peter Sachs's Maserati Zagato.. It turned out that the valves uses the same design as the Alfa 1900, holding cups are screwed into valve stem, you just click one click that corresponds to a 0001th of a inch! I used the same tool that used on the Alfa in the 60's.
Thanks again,
Serge Dermanian
Mystery OSCA
The double bubble cowl on the Devin OSCA makes this one easy to spot--any takers out there?
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I’m sending you a photo of my OSCA s/n 1176 with a Devin body.
In 1956 the car was delivered new to Jim Simpson in Chicago with
a Morelli coupe body. After an accident it was sold and rebodied
with the above Devin and eventually ended up in Europe.
Might any of your readers know anything about this OSCA, who owned it, and what the original body looked like?
Sincerely,
Christopher Pund
A movable snack
My passion for small rusty Italian vehicles goes way back to childhood as I learned to drive on my dad's lap in his old Fiat 126. That continued into high school where my dad and I had the only 2 Lancia Beta coupes in the state of North Dakota (mine a '76 and his a '79). My mom drove an '81 Fiat Strada that I subsequently inherited after graduating from Penn State in '94, and I used it to tow my newly purchased '87 Alfa spider from Pennsylvania to Texas for my first assignment in the Air Force (yes, I towed an Alfa Spider with a 75hp, 4-cylinder, 1500cc Fiat hatchback through the Allegheny Mountains - with no problems). As far as I know that little Fiat is still driving around tCalifornia's Mohave desert somewhere…
The 500 ready for it’s second cross country trip. Neat trailer!!
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In the next month we're spending 3 weeks of vacation visiting my folks in Italy (driving my dad's Lancia Delta Integrale HARD and scrounging for Fiat 500 parts)... We return to Norfolk just long enough to hook up the Cinquecento to the minivan and the Alfa Spider to the Explorer, and then it's off to Vegas for the Alfa's 6th cross-country move and the Fiat's second... This upcoming move is number 10 in 13 years, and somehow I keep managing to haul the toys with me most of the places the Air Force sends us!
Cheers,
Matteo Martemucci
