CarBrandLogos archive · MV Agusta · 1998

MV AgustaMV Agusta F4

Tamburini drew it, and the four organ pipes under the tail did the rest.

Photo: Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in MV Agusta history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the MV Agusta F4, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

MV Agusta collected grand prix world championships through the 1950s and 1960s at a rate no manufacturer has matched since, then left racing in 1976 and stopped building motorcycles altogether a few years later. When Cagiva revived the name in the 1990s, the machine that had to justify it was the F4.

2007MVAgusta F41000R-001 · Rich Niewiroski Jr. · CC BY 2.5

Design and engineering

Massimo Tamburini designed it, having already done the Ducati 916, and a good many people think it the better-looking of the two. The details carry the argument: a single-sided swingarm, a trellis frame with cast aluminium plates, an engine that pivots on eccentric adjusters, and four organ-pipe exhausts stacked under the tail. Ferrari's engine people were involved in the early development of the cylinder head, which used radial rather than parallel valves, unusual on any production four.

MVAgusta F4 750 · Psperl · Public domain

In production

The first version, the 750cc F4 Serie Oro of 1999, used magnesium castings and was sold in a numbered run at a price that established exactly where MV intended to sit. Capacity later grew to 1000cc and then to 1078cc in the F4 CC, and the range accumulated Tamburini and Senna editions and progressively more extreme variants.

MV Agusta F4 1000 R 312 · Klaus Nahr from Germany · CC BY-SA 2.0

Legacy

It was never an easy ownership proposition. Dealers were thin on the ground, MV changed hands repeatedly, with Cagiva, Proton, Harley-Davidson and Mercedes-AMG among the parties holding stakes over the years, and running costs were a genuine consideration. What the F4 delivered instead was the argument that motorcycle design could be treated as industrial art, and it was still on sale in 2018 with a silhouette barely changed from 1999.

At a glance