The Moto Guzzi V8, or the Otto motorcycle was designed by Giulio Cesare Carcano specifically for the

Moto Guzzi Moto Guzzi is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer and the oldest European manufacturer in continuous motorcycle production. Established in 1921 in Mandello del Lario, Italy, the company is noted for its historic role in Italy's motorcycling ma ...

Grand Prix

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

team for the 1955 to

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

seasons. Though following the

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of ...

Galbusera V8 of 1938, the Moto Guzzi Otto motorcycle and its engine represent a unique and historically significant engineering milestone. The Discovery Channel ranked the Moto Guzzi Otto as one of the ten greatest motorbikes of all time.

History

By 1955, Moto Guzzi had already demonstrated its engineering prowess, creating motorcycles with a wide breadth of configurations: horizontal singles, parallel twins, V-twins in in-line and transverse layouts, 3-cylinders, and 4-cylinders in horizontal and in-line form. The Moto Guzzi V8 reinforced Moto Guzzi's commitment to pushing engineering boundaries. The engine was conceived by Giulio Carcano just after the 1954 Monza Grand Prix and designed by Dr. Carcano. To introduce the bike, and build publicity, Moto Guzzi's racing team manager released a letter to the international motorcycle press announcing Moto Guzzi's plans for the 1955 Grand Prix season—attaching a drawing of the new Otto and challenging them to guess the configuration of Moto Guzzi's then very secret racing bike. Very few guessed correctly, and the Otto made a stunning public debut a few months later. The engine and the bike were without precedent: a

water-cooled Cooling tower and water discharge of a nuclear power plant Water cooling is a method of heat removal from components and industrial equipment. Evaporative cooling using water is often more efficient than air cooling. Water is inexpensive and no ...

, V-8 motorcycle — with dual overhead cams and a separate carburetor for each of the eight cylinders. Weighing only (overall bike weight ), its miniaturized components tightly packed, the engine produced an unprecedented at 12000 rpm. The motorcycle proved capable of achieving —20 years before the speed was reached again in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. Tyre, brake and suspension technology, however, lagged behind the powerful engine—making race course field testing difficult and actual racing dangerous. Fergus Anderson crashed the motorcycle on its maiden run in Modena. Only Fergus Anderson,

Stanley Woods Stanley Woods (1903 – 28 July 1993) was an Irish motorcycle racer famous for 29 motorcycle Grand Prix wins in the 1920s and 1930s, winning the Isle of Man TT races ten times in his career, plus wins at Assen and elsewhere. He was also a ski ...

Dickie Dale Richard H. Dale (25 April 1927 – 30 April 1961), known as Dickie Dale, was a Grand Prix motorcycle road racer born in Wyberton near Boston, Lincolnshire, England. In 1945 he was drafted into the RAF and served as a flight mechanic, and b ...

, Ken Kavanagh, Keith Campbell, Giuseppe Colnago, Bill Lomas and Alano Montanari were ever able to even ride the V8 motorcycle. Several of the riders experienced spectacular falls—Bill Lomas suffering a head injury at the 1956 Senigallia Grand Prix. Ken Kavanagh refused to ride the motorcycle after the

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

race at

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), frequently referred to as ''Spa'', is a motor-racing circuit located in Stavelot, Belgium. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, hosting its first Grand Prix in 1925, and has he ...

. The ''Otto Cilindri'' also proved complex and expensive to build, in addition to the danger the bike posed to the racers themselves. By 1957 there were two bikes available and no one willing to race the bike without further development. Instead, the Otto remained undeveloped, as Moto Guzzi and other manufacturers withdrew from racing entirely in the 1957 season. Speculation suggests that with further development, the V8 could have proved a formidable Grand Prix contender. Two authentic examples of the engine remain in the possession of Moto Guzzi, at the Moto Guzzi Museum in Mandello. For the 2013 Guzzi World Days (''Giornate Mondiali Guzzi'', GMG) gathering, the racing bike was rolled out and started for the crowd to hear the sound of the unmuffled V8's exhaust.

References

{{Moto Guzzi Grand Prix 500cc V8 Grand Prix motorcycles Motorcycles introduced in the 1950s Eight-cylinder motorcycles

History

See also

References