1977 Laverda V6
(Page 3 of 5)
March/April 2007
By Phillip Tooth
Battle of the Bol
The Bol d’Or (Golden Bowl) is easily the longest event in the motorcycle racing calendar and can trace its roots right back to 1922 when it was more than 48 hours long — yes, two days and two nights of blasting around a track, more than enough to ignite the French passion for long distance racing.
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More than a race, more than a carnival, more than a celebration of motorcycling, the Bol d’Or attracted upwards of 100,000 enthusiasts. Audience participation was always high on the list of spectator priorities, the greatest being the track invasion before the official finishing time. If the gods smiled and Laverda could pull it off, there could be no better place to debut their new baby. Just imagine the boost to road bike sales as pictures of 5,000 people crowding onto the track to surround the orange Laverda flashed around the world.
But that would be easier said than done. Laverda might have had Nico Cereghini, their best endurance racer, and Carlo Perugini, that year’s Italian 500cc champion (on a Suzuki RG500) as co-pilots, but they were up against some stiff competition. Honda France and Honda Britain were running 997cc 16-valve RCB works racers while Yamaha was fielding an OW31 — a full-on 750cc two-stroke racer fitted with lights and a kickstart piloted by Patrick Pons and Christian Sarron.
Prepared by NCR, the race-prep subsidiary of Ducati Bologna, the semi-works 900 Ducatis hid nothing of great novelty under their combined fairing and big gas tank. In fact, the Ducatis were very similar to the 900SS ridden by Mike Hailwood in the Isle of Man TT. But not a single Ducati was to finish the 24-hours.
Pops Yoshimura brought a touch of American Superbike racing to Paul Ricard with a Suzuki GS1000 enlarged to 1,100cc. It had an extremely long swingarm and extensively modified rear subframe to take laydown KYB shocks. The steering head was strengthened and all the welded frame joints were covered with brazing. Morris magnesium wheels carried large discs with Lockheed calipers while special Kayaba air forks sorted the front suspension.
The great unveiling
But the V6 was still something of a sensation when it was unveiled at the Bol d’Or. Everyone had expected a new Laverda triple and not the V6, which many considered to be only a show project. And when the V6 was timed at 175.46mph down the Mistral straight during practice, 5mph faster than the OW31 and way ahead of the 163mph Honda RCB-482A, people really started to take notice. With the right gearing, Laverda predicted a top speed of 186mph.
But it was no fairy tale debut. Although the chassis was good enough to hold the V6 at over 148mph through the very fast curves without it weaving all over the place, the bike’s weight handicap imposed severe physical strain on Cereghini and Perugini. And what was worse, the weight killed acceleration, something that was plain to see as the Laverda chugged away from the slower corners on the circuit.
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