MV Agusta F4ZSince the Milan-based Zagato was founded in 1919 by Ugo Zagato, the focus was designing and building lightweight car bodies. Known as a coachbuilder overseas – a manufacturer of automobile bodies – Zagato has created timeless designs for Alfa Romaeo, Fiat, Maserati, Jaguar, BMW and Lamborghini, to name a few.But in 2016, Zagato took its design skills in a different direction, and collaborated with MV Agusta to build the F4Z. As the name implies, the MV Agusta F4Z is based on the F4 superbike; the F4, designed by the iconic Massimo Tamburini, arrives with a 998cc four-cylinder that produces 195 horsepower at 13,400 rpm.
The F4Z is a one-off build for an unidentified Japanese entrepreneur in the world of fashion and publishing who is also a collector of Zagato cars and Italian motorcycles.The F4’s chassis and engine remain the same, but the bodywork is pure Zagato, built from carbon fiber and aluminum. MV Agusta reports that some parts had to be re-engineered and others fully replaced by new components, such as the intake manifolds, fuel tank, battery and exhaust.Speaking of the build, MV Agusta says: “The starting point was the notion that a motorbike expresses its owner’s lifestyle a lot more than a car. Therefore, it was essential to know and understand the character, passions and wishes of the person to whom the bike was destined.“The collector or investor who turns to the Zagato Atelier requesting an exclusive piece is certainly someone with a strong passion. The love for bikes of the client dates back to the Eighties, when he bought his first motorcycle and started to customize it with his own hands.“It was his visceral passion that stimulated the designers’ creativity. He didn’t want anything modern, fashionable, but something that could instead keep its value and appeal. What he wanted was a motorbike that wasn’t comparable to any other, that was classic, but always up to date and with a timeless design.”The MV Agusta F4Z is without a doubt timeless in design, and we can only imagine what this will be worth a decade from now.
Hello everyone and welcome once again to Motos and Friends, the weekly podcast brought to you by Ultimate Motorcycling. My name is Arthur Coldwells.
Motos and Friends is brought to you by Yamaha. You can check out the amazing YZF-R7 at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com. The YZF-R7 is an amazing supersport machine that is comfortable too!
In this week’s first segment, Editor Don Williams takes the smallest BMW ADV bike on an urban adventure in Los Angeles. The BMW G 310 GS is a full size motorcycle with a modest engine, so of course we wonder if it is a little too underpowered and might struggle. Don put it through its paces and gives us his take.
In the second segment, Neale Bayly and Kiran Ridley have returned from the Ukraine to Paris where Kiran is based.
Kiran is an award winning photojournalist, and as an accomplished documentarian, he has covered stories as diverse as drug smuggling around the Mexican border, to the devastation of the Australian Bush Fires, to the tragedy of the Mediterranean migration crisis. Neale and Kiran reminisce about their motorcycle adventure in the Ukraine, and their observations and experiences with the incredibly resilient people of Ukraine, who have been put through such brutal hardship.
The F4’s chassis and engine remain the same, but the bodywork is pure Zagato, built from carbon fiber and aluminum. MV Agusta reports that some parts had to be re-engineered and others fully replaced by new components, such as the intake manifolds, fuel tank, battery and exhaust.Speaking of the build, MV Agusta says: “The starting point was the notion that a motorbike expresses its owner’s lifestyle a lot more than a car. Therefore, it was essential to know and understand the character, passions and wishes of the person to whom the bike was destined.“The collector or investor who turns to the Zagato Atelier requesting an exclusive piece is certainly someone with a strong passion. The love for bikes of the client dates back to the Eighties, when he bought his first motorcycle and started to customize it with his own hands.“It was his visceral passion that stimulated the designers’ creativity. He didn’t want anything modern, fashionable, but something that could instead keep its value and appeal. What he wanted was a motorbike that wasn’t comparable to any other, that was classic, but always up to date and with a timeless design.”The MV Agusta F4Z is without a doubt timeless in design, and we can only imagine what this will be worth a decade from now.
