Despite the complexity and obviously unreliability, the 499 CCS air-cooled V8 engine developed 78 horsepower and a top speed of 275 km/h. The V8 made an indelible impression on both motorcyclists and designers.
Often reinterpreted by designers, the legacy V8 outlives its time on the race track by a lot. The Dutch store LM Creations has only added to this legacy by turning the Moto Guzzi V9 Bobber 2021 100th Anniversary into a retro racer.
Luuk Muis from LM Creations collaborated on this project with the French company Motoplex Metz. As a leading Piaggio dealer, Motoplex Metz was looking for a design to celebrate Guzzi’s centenary.
LM Creations has retained most of the standard V9, but a hand-shaped aluminum fairing and a Grand Prix-style gas tank distinguish this assembly. To be successful, Muis retained the aesthetics of the handmade V8 with purposefully uneven welds.
“One of the oldest tricks in the book is to hide the welds using strips of the same aluminum as the filler rod,” Muis explained. “But we actually bought a different aluminum, darker, to emphasize the hand-made gas tank and how it was constructed.”
When Muis used special coatings for cans, he advised refraining from applying glossy paint in order to preserve the “DIY” appearance. However, a vintage-style body is not the whole show.
“While the original V8 front fairing also had air intakes, LM Creations changed the location of the holes to direct air into the cylinder heads.”