MV Agusta Motorcycle History

Meccanica Verghera

Like many other famous marques, Agusta began business as aircraft manufacturers - Agusta is well known to this day for their excellent helicopters. After the Second World War the founder's son, Count Domenico Agusta, began motorcycle production and entered international competition with typical Italian flair. The team's efforts soon culminated in success, with a world 125 championship at the hands of Cecil Sandford. This was followed by a long string of world championships in every class with riders of the calibre of Carlo Ubbiali and John Surtees, Phil Read, Mike Hailwood and Agostini. Fettled by Arturo Magni, MV appeared almost unbeatable, completely dominating international roadracing for a full decade

Motorcycle production was limited, but the company produced a considerable variety of four stroke 125 singles and 350 twins, along with a series of roadgoing shaft drive four cylinder models which have become very collectible indeed. Not quite as collectible as their racing models however, which, on the rare occasions they come onto the market, can fetch over a million dollars. Apart from MV's success on the world's racing circuits, a strong contributing factor to the rarity of the marque's racing machinery may be that, so the story goes, Count Agusta used to bury the previous season's bikes under the runway at the helicopter factory to prevent competitors from stealing his secrets.