another bike i was looking forward to seeing again was the amazing 1957 v8 moto guzzi belonging to sammy miller, i've seen a couple of the v8 guzzi's before, one in the museum at solvang and one at stoneleigh, [at the race-retro show, again, sammy miller was involved but i'm not sure if this was the same machine, the bike looked more 'original' with the patina of age, where as the bike at telford looked more like a restoration or even a replica?], nevertheless, to see one of these extraordinary machines in the flesh and to actually hear one running, is a real treat, the guzzi v8 is a unique bike, with a bore and stroke of 44x42mm, the 498.58cc engine's tiny pistons were fed by eight individual 20mm dell'orto carbs, twin overhead cams and watercooling, combined with a relatively light weight gave an output of nearly 80 italian ponies at 14000rpm! to put things in perspective, at the belgian grand prix in 1956, the guzzi was timed at a staggering 178mph, compare that with a modern day gp bike, [remember the guzzi is 500cc, the moto gp bikes are 1000cc], with a top speed of 220mph........
another bike i was looking forward to seeing again was the amazing 1957 v8 moto guzzi belonging to sammy miller, i've seen a couple of the v8 guzzi's before, one in the museum at solvang and one at stoneleigh, [at the race-retro show, again, sammy miller was involved but i'm not sure if this was the same machine, the bike looked more 'original' with the patina of age, where as the bike at telford looked more like a restoration or even a replica?], nevertheless, to see one of these extraordinary machines in the flesh and to actually hear one running, is a real treat, the guzzi v8 is a unique bike, with a bore and stroke of 44x42mm, the 498.58cc engine's tiny pistons were fed by eight individual 20mm dell'orto carbs, twin overhead cams and watercooling, combined with a relatively light weight gave an output of nearly 80 italian ponies at 14000rpm! to put things in perspective, at the belgian grand prix in 1956, the guzzi was timed at a staggering 178mph, compare that with a modern day gp bike, [remember the guzzi is 500cc, the moto gp bikes are 1000cc], with a top speed of 220mph........
That must have been something to hear, love it when they allow bikes to be fired up at a show.
ReplyDeletelarry, i swear, you would have died and gone to heaven! beautiful...
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