Transcendent Maximalism: Morbidelli 850 V8

Whenever we visit the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Alabama, one of the ultra-rare machines that draws us is the Morbidelli V8 — a shaft-drive Italian sport tourer with a 32-valve liquid-cooled 847cc 90° V8 that looks remarkable modern for a bike built in the 1990s.

The late Giancarlo Morbidelli (1934-2020) came from a family of farmers on Italy’s Adriatic Coast. He began work as an apprentice fitter at a furniture-making machine factory at 16 and later founded a company in that trade, which allowed him to finance his true passion: motorcycles.

“Morbidelli started his own woodworking company in the late 1950s, but applying his innate technical brilliance after hours to tune locally built Benelli and Motobi bikes to a succession of race victories was his relief from the punishing days…” –Motorcycle Classics

Morbidelli founded his eponymous motorcycle manufacturing company in 1957, and they would make their name at the most elite level of racing, winning the 125cc Grand Prix championship in 1975-77, and the 250cc championship in 1977. 

Morbidelli disbanded his racing team in 1981, but he soon set out on an epic new venture: to build “ultimate touring bike,” which could outshine the Italian overdogs like Ducati and Bimota. The heart of the bike would be the engine, a proprietary V8 design:

“Motorcycles with more than four cylinders are often considered exercises in excess, muscle-bound bikes that surrender function to form. But the elegance of Morbidelli’s 8-cylinder approach transcended the novelty of over-endowed motorcycles; it involved shrinking a Cosworth V8 design— already a landmark high-performance engine — to a mere 848cc of displacement. The Lilliputian 90-degree longitudinal 32-valve engine produced an intriguing blend of power and balance. The bike also created misleading spatial dimensions with delicately entwined exhaust headers that appeared to be smaller than they should have been, and a muffler of relatively small diameter that made the bike seem even larger than it actually was.” -Basem Wasef

The engine was tuned down to 120 bhp at 11,000 rpm — more sport tourer than superbike — but it was the sound and character of the engine that made the deepest impression. No less than Alan Cathcart was well impressed:

“All I can say is that the Morbidelli completely lived up to my expectations. It’s the throttle you appreciate most, because it’s the key to the best sounding motorcycle engine man has yet made. Get the fuel-injected, 32-valve V-Eight revving above 7000 rpm and be prepared for a scream that will make your flesh tingle and your blood curdle. This is a machine to feast your senses on; it’s unique, awesome, fabulous, thrilling-all expletives apply!” Alan Cathcart, Cycle World

The bike reported weighed just 200 kilograms (440 pounds) — incredibly light for a V8 motorcycle. The bike featured a Bimota-designed chromoly trellis frame, GCB suspension, Brembo brakes, and a Weber-Marelli fuel injection system.

The Pinifarini bodywork with the dual headlights proved highly unpopular, with one journalist saying it looked “as though a Storm Trooper had mated with a Jet Ski.” However, the silver-painted design you see here was both classic and modern, and has held up well over the ensuing decades.

The bike’s $45,000 price tag — a Guinness World Record at the time — made it hard to find buyers, but apparently the order book was looking strong when Morbidelli sold his business, and the new owners cared only for his woodworking machines, not his motorcycles. Only four of these maximalist machines would ever be produced, each hand-built, which instantly cemented the Morbidelli V8 as a collector’s dream…and an icon in the annals of what could have been.

There are those who maligned the bike for its high price tag and lack of outright horsepower, but it’s rare these days to see such an ambition prototype developed not in boardrooms and investor meetings and focus groups, but as the prevailing vision of a single designer. 

We highly recommend a pilgrimage to Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum for any motorcycle enthusiast, where you can see this bike in the metal…and so many other rare, unique, and storied classics.

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