In order for the ladies to find something interesting on this blog...and to combine this something with an important piece of knowledge on the most exotic and exclusive bike manufacturer, here is some pictures of Giovanni Castiglioni, CEO of MV Agusta, age 32.
For their Summer 2012 issue, the UK-based Fast Bikes
magazine have done a very interesting interview with the late, great,
Claudio Castiglioni’s son, Giovanni Castiglioni, who now heads MV
Agusta. Giovanni certainly doesn’t mince words and while we don’t really
agree with his views on a lot of things, they make for pretty
interesting reading all the same. Here are some brief excerpts from what
he has to say:
About Ducati
“The new bike is very nice, the Panigale, but it is not a Ducati. It is something completely different. No tubular frame, no exhaust, no torque. Look at Ducati’s 999 – a big mistake. And not just that, but it is impossible to understand if a Diavel is a Ducati, or a Harley, or whatever. People ask me about Audi buying Ducati, saying with them, Ducati will sell three times more volume. I’m not sure about this. It is not always true that a big company helps the sales of a small company.”
About Porsche
“We use an example that is Porsche because their philosophy is the correct one for our size. Our bikes don’t get old. Even the first F4, compared to the new one – it’s an older F4, like a 1970s Porsche 911.”
About MV Agusta
“We will concentrate on three families – naked, super sport and crossover – for the moment. We don’t generate enough cash to invest in an all new product every year. We did 4,000 units last year and we have 10,000 orders this year, but production is limited to 8,500. We are investing in the production line to increase this to 11,000 and then we stop. MV Agusta should have 12,000 units as our maximum.”
“Massimo Bordi is working for us and he’s giving me good help both in management and engineering. Since we took over, it was difficult to restructure the company, but now I think we will have a good future.”
Now, we are huge fans of MV Agusta here at Faster and Faster and the new F4, especially, still looks very, very beautiful. However, we don’t really agree with Giovanni’s thoughts on keeping the same styling cues forever. Maybe it works for Porsche, maybe it doesn’t – the German car company might also be a bit better off if they were trying their hand at new designs. That there is a marked resemblance between a 1970s Porsche 911 and a 2012 911 isn’t a good thing as far as we’re concerned. Porsche did try something brand new with the Carrera GT and that was brilliant and we don’t understand why they can’t do that for the 911, the Boxster and the Cayman etc.
No, MV Agusta really need to build new bikes that actually look all new, and not like warmed over 10 or 15 year old designs. And the Panigale – regardless of what Giovanni says, the Panigale most certainly is a proper Ducati and we love it very, very much…
Source: Fast Bikes
About Ducati
“The new bike is very nice, the Panigale, but it is not a Ducati. It is something completely different. No tubular frame, no exhaust, no torque. Look at Ducati’s 999 – a big mistake. And not just that, but it is impossible to understand if a Diavel is a Ducati, or a Harley, or whatever. People ask me about Audi buying Ducati, saying with them, Ducati will sell three times more volume. I’m not sure about this. It is not always true that a big company helps the sales of a small company.”
About Porsche
“We use an example that is Porsche because their philosophy is the correct one for our size. Our bikes don’t get old. Even the first F4, compared to the new one – it’s an older F4, like a 1970s Porsche 911.”
About MV Agusta
“We will concentrate on three families – naked, super sport and crossover – for the moment. We don’t generate enough cash to invest in an all new product every year. We did 4,000 units last year and we have 10,000 orders this year, but production is limited to 8,500. We are investing in the production line to increase this to 11,000 and then we stop. MV Agusta should have 12,000 units as our maximum.”
“Massimo Bordi is working for us and he’s giving me good help both in management and engineering. Since we took over, it was difficult to restructure the company, but now I think we will have a good future.”
Now, we are huge fans of MV Agusta here at Faster and Faster and the new F4, especially, still looks very, very beautiful. However, we don’t really agree with Giovanni’s thoughts on keeping the same styling cues forever. Maybe it works for Porsche, maybe it doesn’t – the German car company might also be a bit better off if they were trying their hand at new designs. That there is a marked resemblance between a 1970s Porsche 911 and a 2012 911 isn’t a good thing as far as we’re concerned. Porsche did try something brand new with the Carrera GT and that was brilliant and we don’t understand why they can’t do that for the 911, the Boxster and the Cayman etc.
No, MV Agusta really need to build new bikes that actually look all new, and not like warmed over 10 or 15 year old designs. And the Panigale – regardless of what Giovanni says, the Panigale most certainly is a proper Ducati and we love it very, very much…
Source: Fast Bikes
The ladies approve! :)
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