Lorenzo World Champion

Gorge Lorenzo has won the the 2006 World Championship on a Aprilia 250. After a lonely race in 4th place Lorenzo secured the title with a 17 point lead on Honda rider Dovizioso.

It was a succesful weekend in the 250cc class. The top 5 was all Aprilia. Alex de Angelis scored his first victory after battling with Aoyama(he chrashed) and Locatelli.



In the 125cc class Aprilia rider Faubel won the race with ktm rider Kallio 2nd and Aprilia rider Gaudea 3rd.

2007 RXV Details

Changes:

- New accelerator handle that enables better gas control
- 2kg (4lbs) weight reduction, 500gr (1lbs) comes off the frame
- Better suspension settings
- more agressive colors (red mudgard, white decals)
- seat with pocket for maps
- The racing kit is included (side number plates)
- New piston
- New mapping
- Improved startermotor
- less frequent Intervals of maintenance

The new mapping supposed to improve the on/off feeling and the progressiveness of the throttle response. In other words they made the throttle response less "brute". They also changed the cam for the same reason. Better throttle response.

New Accessoires:



-Akrapovic exhaust with special mapping

More pics here

Samuela diNardi 3rd in European Women's Championship

Samuela deNardi finished 3rd in the over class on the spanish Cartenega track. After a succesful season with a 1st place on the Rijeka track deNardi ends the season with a 3rd place in the rankings.

More info

No more 750 naked pics

I had to remove the pics on request of the Aprilia press office. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Even more V4 Rumors!

Maxmoto (a UK Aprilia Dealer) has released some new info about the new V4. Some rumors I posted about yesterday seem to be true.

The v4 will be a 77 degrees dry sump DOHC engine. Its related to the succesful RXV/SXV engine. Maxmoto says it was making 188hp at last years tests. With a year of development since it must be 200+ now. The new V4 engined Aprilia will indeed be available in 2008 and will cost more than the RSV Factory but less than a Duc 999r.

Sounds very good...I hope we can see it at the Milan show in november.

Aprilia V4 Rumors

There are some rumors around for the new Aprilia 1000 v4 that will hopefully race in the 2008 superbike season. It will probably be available at the European dealers in 2008. The time of release on the American market is unclear. It will probably be a homologation model ala the mille SP. So it isn't going to be cheap. More than the RSVR Factory for sure. These are all rumors...nothing official. We will keep you updated.

Aprilia wins S2 Supermoto Constructor Title

At the Latina Supermoto track in Italy Aprilia has won S2 supermoto title. With one race to go the team has enough points to be crowned constructors champion. It has been a succesful season for the team. In 7 grand prix raced, the two-cylinder from Noale won 5 Superpoles (3 with Van Den Bosch and 2 with Bolley), and won 10 of 14 heats (7 with Van Den Bosch, 2 with Bolley, 1 with Giraudo). The battle about the riders title is still going between Aprilia riders van den Bosch and Giraudo. van den Bosch won both races in Latina. Race 2 even had a nice Aprilia 1-2-3 with van den Bosch,Giraudo and Bolley.

Aprilia riders at Estoril

The Aprilia news is kinda slow in anticipation of the EICMA in milan next month. So forgive me for the lack of news.

Its a pretty busy weekend for the Aprilia Racing department. The supermoto's S1 & S2 are racing at the Latina track in Italy. And the 250&125cc teams are racing at the Estoril Grand Prix in Portugal.

Team toth Aprilia rider Locatelli took the pole position in the 250cc class. With Lorenzo 4th and Barbera 5th the factory Aprilia team is doing pretty good.


World Champion Bautista riding on the brand new Aprilia RSA 125cc bike took the pole in the 125cc class. Faubel classified 2nd and Pasini 4th.

Parts petition

Apparently some french Aprilia riders got totally fed up with the slow parts supply from Aprilia. So they took action and decided to create a petition to shake things up a bit at Aprilia. Don't know if that will ever happen but it never hurts to try.

Sign the petition here

New 750 spy pic!

Hot of the press. A new spypic of the upcoming Aprilia 750 naked that will be shown to the public during the Milan show in november.

The naked frame look a lot like the sxv/rxv frame and the front fork configuration looks a lot like the tuono 1000. The angular underseat pipes also remind me of the SXV/RXV. The front seems to look like the tuono.

The engine is rumoured to be piaggio's new 750 v-twin engine. The specs of this engine are: 90hp at 9500rpm and 75nm at 6500rpm. For more info about the engine download this pdf

Aprilia dominates s2 supermoto with 2 wins

It was a very succesful weekend for aprilia at the the Grand Prix Le Alpi del Mare.
Aprilia man Thierry Van Den Bosch imitated Lazzarini and conquered 2 back to back Moto wins.
Giraudo “holeshotting” the first turn.
The first Moto saw Bolley and Beltrami leading the group into the first right hander but VDB snatched the lead before the end of the opening lap. He knew Bolley’s speed in the off-road section was high and managed to open up a small gap to control the Team mate.
Giraudo did not have a good pace at the off-road section but managed to hold third place for the entire race.

Result race 1:
1. Thierry Van den Bosch (Aprilia SXV 4.5);
2. Frederic Bolley (Aprilia SXV 4.5);
3. Jerome Giraudo (Aprilia SXV 4.5).

In the second race Giraudo had a storming start with Bolley crashing out. VDB was second followed by Bidart.
At the fourth lap Van Den Bosch moved past Giraudo; Giraudo kept close to his Team mate and behind him there was Bidart closing all doors to Balducci and Beltrami.
Giraudo crashed as well but he quickly restarted and finish second behind Team mate VDB; Adrien Chareyre was third: he found his way through and made to pass Balducci, who “survived” the chase for Bidart and finished fourth.
Result race 2:
1. Thierry Van den Bosch (Aprilia SXV 4.5);
2. Jerome Giraudo (Aprilia SXV 4.5);
3. Adrien Chareyre (Husqvarna)

In the Championship Van Den Bosch firmly holds the red plate with 31 points more than Giraudo, second. Adrien Chareyre is now third, 17 points behind Giraudo; Bolley is fourth and Balducci is fifth.
Supermoto s1 was a bit less succesful with a 4th and 7th place for Iddon and an 11th and 8th place for british supermoto champion Sam Warren.

Aprilia 550 powered superkart

Okay its not a motorcycle but its still partly an Aprilia. The guys at BRC racing have build a superkart with an Aprilia 550 motor. They published the first movie of their first testing day at a small sprint track. I really recommend watching the movie esspecially for the sound of the 550 engine.

Click here for the movie of the test

Luthi signs with Aprilia for the 2007 250cc season

Its official. The swiss driver and 125cc champion of last year has signed with Aprilia. Luthi will be riding for a new factory Aprilia team next year. This new factory team has been financed by sponsor Emmi (swiss milk & coffee products manufacturer). They also sponsored Luthi's during his last 2 seasons in the 125cc class. The first test for the team will be 2 days after the close of the current season. Well over ten Aprilia 250 cc bikes are expected to be competing in the field. The Emmi Caffè Latte Aprilia team is looking to position itself in the front ranks (top 10) by the end of the first four months of the season. For news about this new team keep checking aprilianews.

Kickass tuono video

This is a movie done a while ago for the launch of the new model tuono. But the movie is hidden somewhere in the dark caves of the aprilia site and I thought lets bring it to a brighter light.

Enjoy!

Italian press rides the new Tuono Factory

The Italian press had their first ride on the brand new Tuono Factory and it seems they like it a lot...how unexpected.

For you Italians here are some articles(for the non-italians they also feature nice photos):

Motorbox

Infomotori

Topmoto

I'd like to recommend the Motorbox gallery full of beautiful pics of the new Tuono Factory

Aprilia Pacifico team struggles at Road America round

The Aprilia Pacifico team wich races in the AMA supermoto series had a hard and diffucult day on the Road America track in Lake Elkhart WI. During the practice the chain was caught breaking a tooth on the second gear of the 550. The team had to change to a backup motor and the team qualified 7th of 22 riders. Struggling with a underpowered motor and the rain Atkins retired the race from the 22th place.

Quote Darryl Atkins:
“I’m encouraged by the package we started with and the crew will be busy building two machines of equal capability for the upcoming round in Nashville, TN on October 14th. Despite poor results on the track this weekend, we’re happy to report that the public enthusiasm and support for the project continues, and fans still seek us out to take photographs and see the machine in person.”

Check out the full report and several pictures here