Arturo Magni | |
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Born | |
Died | 2 December 2015 Samarate, Lombardy, Italy | (aged 90)
Nationality | Italian |
Occupation(s) | engineer, entrepreneur racing team manager |
Arturo Magni (Usmate Velate, 24 September 1925 - Samarate, 2 December 2015)[1] was an Italian engineer racing team manager and entrepreneur.
Arturo Magni was born in Usmate Velate, near Milan in the Lombardy region of Italy on 24 September 1925.[2] His main passion was for model aeroplanes, where he showed great technical creativeness in building them. He built life-size gliders, which he flew himself, and won the 1938 Italian Gliding Championship.[3]
After leaving school, he worked for his father for a while and then joined the aviation industry, working for the Italian manufacturer Bestetti.[4]
The story of Arturo Magni in the world of two wheels began in 1947 when he joined Gilera.[3] The company had decided to participate in the 500 cc World Championship and had commissioned Pietro Remor to build a new four-cylinder GP engine. Remor was impressed by Magni's talents, and at Remor's insistence, Magni joined the R&D departement to assist in building the new engine.[3] This engine powered Gilera to six world titles in the 500 class with the riders Umberto Masetti, Libero Liberati and Geoff Duke.[2]
Count Domenico Agusta was determined to make MV Agusta one of the leading motorcycle marques.[2] In 1950 Augusta hired Pietro Remor to build two GP machines: a four-cylinder 500 cc and a DOHC 125 cc.[5] To assist him in this project, Remor brought Magni with him from Gilera[3] as chief mechanic.[2] Soon Magni became Direttore Sportivo[6] (director of the racing department) under the watchful eye of the Count.[7]
His technical expertise was fundamental in developing the world-beating 350 and 500 cc "Threes" in the 1960s and the "Fours" in the 1970s.[3]
Magni held this position until the marque withdrew from competition in 1976.[2] He had employed riders such as Giacomo Agostini, John Surtees, Carlo Ubbiali, Phil Read, Mike Hailwood, Cecil Sandford and Tarquinio Provini. The Varese-based company, under Magni's guidance, won a total of 75 world titles (37 manufacturers and 38 riders).[2]
After the withdrawal from racing, Magni stayed on at MV as superintendent of the MV Agusta museum.[3]
In 1980, Magni was head of the race shop at Cagiva. He was in charge of development of a new four-cylinder racing two-stroke. The engine, which was a development of the Yamaha TZ 500 engine, was first used by Virginio Ferrari the 1980 German motorcycle Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.[8]
From 1977 he began his career as an entrepreneur founding the house that bears his name, along with his two sons. The company, based in a small but fully equipped workshop,[4] was located at Samarate, 20 miles from the MV factory.[7] Initial the company manufactured special parts for the MV Agusta 750 S motorcycles, such as chain drive conversions, big-bore kits and frame kits.[2] Later, in 1980, the company progressed to the construction of complete motorcycles. The first models were power by Honda CB900F engines (models MH1 & MH2). Later BMW R100 (MB1 & MB2) and various Moto Guzzi engines were used. The Sfida 1000 model, introduced in 1989, used a Moto Guzzi engine in a machine styled to reflect the MV racers of the 1960s.[9] (Sfida means "challenge" in Italian).[10] In 1999, models based on the four-cylinder Suzuki Bandit 1200 engine were added.[7]
Motorcycles 1998- | |
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Motorcycles 1946-1980 | |
Racing motorcycles | |
Designers | |
Racing riders | |
Other |