LAVERDA 500 TURBO OFFICIAL PROTOTYPE

S

SFC addict

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Hi guys,
I apologize for my long absence due to the "Motocicletta Magazine" work which takes all my time.

I am glad to share this picture about the unknown prototype the Breganze factory developed in the earlier '80 (thanks also to a famour car tuner help who reported his work in the above project as the other persons involved)

We already showed in Nr 15 issue the history of this supercharged 500 DOHC engine , while in Nr 16 there is thesad saga of 350 Lesmo 3 cylinders two stroke protptype,, then in the next Nr 17 another scoop with the drawings of the complete Turbo bike.

Stay in contact.
Ciao
 

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Happy to help Steve, but I can't find any details about how to purchase "Motocicletta Magazine". Have dropped an email to Valerio Borghese to see if he can advise.
 
Thanks Rob, I did a short google search re the magazine and came up with nothing.

Turbos were all the rage back then, I was just a wee tacker but remember the hype. Morini showed a prototype styled by the same house as the RGS - similarities were obvious - but I never ever heard anything about an official Laverda 500 turbo. I expect the crankcases cracked with anything over 0.5psi of boost. :D
 
Hy guys !

Thanks for your warm reply and the interest in our magazine
(could be proper call it a "monthly book" due its format and the 164 pages without any adverts)

About to ship copies abroad, we do it but with some exceptions

To make an example, for UK and other extra EU Countries, due the last stupid rules our authorities recently introduced for exporting outside EU now leads terrific comebacks for costs and complications

Right now, we need to open also another tax position as an Extra EU Export Operator, with a separate register for export sales and its invoices:
I'm sorry, but the fixed yearly amount we have to pay in taxes, became more as we can earn with a sale of one hundred copies of the magazine :mad:

Nevertheless, also our foreign EU readers must consider also the cost of the shipment.
it's not our fault but the Italian Mail Service (and couriers) are more expensive as from another Country to Italy

To give you a reference, we already have some customers in The Netherland, France, Germany Spain and Portugal

The cost to ship a copy from Italy to Holland and the above Countries is 20 euros (21,54 USD) + 15 euros for one magazine issue, total 35 euros (37.69 USD)

The above cost is approx the same for all countries in North Europe but for USA or Australia, in addition to the aforementioned tax problems (for which unfortunately we currently do not see a solution) need to consider also the shipment cost increase (I suppose a too big ampount , about three times the magazine price)

About the Laverda 500 Turbo , the Lesmo 350 3 cylinders 2 stroke. RGS 1000 TT F1, 1000 4 cylinder prototype, 900 3 cylinder and some other less known or totally unknow prototipes developed in Breganze, we have written in Nr.15, then Nr. 16 and also the next month, in the Nr. 17 issue.

I will try to console Laverda enthusiasts who live outside the EU,
but I can do it by publishing some pictures and drawings only after sales of the above issues of the magazine have ended , on the next summer

otherwise it would be unfair to those who buy our magazine and I think you can understand me.

Cheers
 

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SFC addict said:
Hy guys !

Thanks for your warm reply and the interest in our magazine
(could be proper call it a "monthly book" due its format and the 164 pages without any adverts)

About to ship copies abroad, we do it but with some exceptions

To make an example, for UK and other extra EU Countries, due the last stupid rules our authorities recently introduced for exporting outside EU now leads terrific comebacks for costs and complications

Right now, we need to open also another tax position as an Extra EU Export Operator, with a separate register for export sales and its invoices:
I'm sorry, but the fixed yearly amount we have to pay in taxes, became more as we can earn with a sale of one hundred copies of the magazine :mad:

Nevertheless, also our foreign EU readers must consider also the cost of the shipment.
it's not our fault but the Italian Mail Service (and couriers) are more expensive as from another Country to Italy

To give you a reference, we already have some customers in The Netherland, France, Germany Spain and Portugal

The cost to ship a copy from Italy to Holland and the above Countries is 20 euros (21,54 USD) + 15 euros for one magazine issue, total 35 euros (37.69 USD)

The above cost is approx the same for all countries in North Europe but for USA or Australia, in addition to the aforementioned tax problems (for which unfortunately we currently do not see a solution) need to consider also the shipment cost increase (I suppose a too big ampount , about three times the magazine price)

About the Laverda 500 Turbo , the Lesmo 350 3 cylinders 2 stroke. RGS 1000 TT F1, 1000 4 cylinder prototype, 900 3 cylinder and some other less known or totally unknow prototipes developed in Breganze, we have written in Nr.15, then Nr. 16 and also the next month, in the Nr. 17 issue.

I will try to console Laverda enthusiasts who live outside the EU,
but I can do it by publishing some pictures and drawings only after sales of the above issues of the magazine have ended , on the next summer

otherwise it would be unfair to those who buy our magazine and I think you can understand me.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Would it not be possible to subscribe to some sort of an electronic version like other publications do and that way save all the bother publishing etc. for a world wide service.
 
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Vince said:
Didnt Honda make something similar, a parallel twin with another cylinder out the back, in a V?
en.wikipedia.org

Honda MVX250F - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...
Yes, they made 2 tipes of supercharged street legal prototypes which never entered in production
were not the model in your picture, but two different engine layouts (frequently misunderstood by magazines)

1) One was a front straigh cylinders 370 & 400cc twin ( similar to the CB400N) with an horizontal "piston pump" cylinder (without combustion: it works only as a supercharger) placed between the two "vertical" units

2) The second was a "V" twin of the CX family but with 400 capacity and a true supercharger (Eaton scheme) placed in the "V"

they did it and we have already showedboth bikes in another "scoop" some months ago, with unknown large pictures, thanks one member of our staff has worked several years in Honda company.so we have in pour archive the internal Technical Paper printed by Honda R&D.

3) Honda has also manufactured in small quantities a turbocharged version of MXV250F "V" twin showed in you picture., due at the time the Authorities of some Countries (Japan included) refused to approve the homologation of a 70HP earlier version, considering its power too dangerous for users

We already showed this rare model with technical features, pictures and drawings in ourt book "Pianeta Giappone" (Two volumes)

4) Honda HRC developed also a racing 250 "V" twin with 8 valve for each cylinder and oval pistons (as in the earlier NR500) but with two turbochargers

We showed also this 152 HP unknow prototype by a picture, some drawings (for the engine, too) anda long text in the above books

This powerful racer was secretly tested by Freddie Spencer but the FIM (International Motorcycle association) never approved the supercharger motorcycles return as a pre-view of the oncoming regulations had given rise to hope in those years. So the project was stopped and Honda tried to save what can be saved by the above single turbo road legal version but with very poor
success for the reasons I have just explained



The feebacks of Honda Japanese testers were terrific due to the excessively abrupt works of the two turbochargers

The HRC engineers nicknamed it something similar to "The pistons melter"...The pistons domes were literally melted by engine overheating!
 

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So interesting, Honda was a powerhouse of really out-there engineering right from there beginning, there really early race bikes were even more NUTS. How a small family company like Laverda competed with tech like that 30-plus years ago? Impressive research from your perspective as well.
 
It's usually normal to root for David against Goliath... :D

Also consider that at 19, instead of buying a Honda like my dad, my cousins and many friends of mine, I bought a drum Laverda 750 SFC
it was about nine years old, too much for races but not enough to be a collection bike, so was cheap...)
then a 750 S, two SF3s, one 1200 TS, two RGS1000, one 1200 racer and a nice and light but mercurial 668 (as a present for my dad when he become old) and so on... (I still own a 750 SFC the disk with spoked wheel model)

A curious aspect: I have always loved Italian sports bikes more as other, but part of my life was spent working for Kawasaki.

So, they gave me lot of money to buy Laverda, but Moto Guzzi and Ducati, too 🤣🤣🤣
 
martymoose said:
Are there photos of the 3 cylinder 2 stroke lesmo?
Click to expand...
a lot, we have published it about the period of development of prototypes,
then about the inner engine also with some new shootings we did two months ago after discovering some Lesmo 350 engine parts forgotten in a supplier storage
but my favourite is the only picture known with the prototype while running some cunsumption tests

this pic hasn't a so good quality, due there is a reflection of the sun on the lens,
also the smoke from the exhausts also plays its part...
but what is most striking is that the 350 Lemo prototype has the 350 three-cylinder engine temporarily fitted in a Laverda LB 125 adapted frame, imade with thin square section steel tubes, instead of the 350 definitive one, with the double large aluminum beam

Other pictures that touch the heart of a Laverda enthusiast are those with the Laverda staff toasting after the first test bench of the 350...disproving those who have said so far that it was just a maquette in wood, clay and fiberglass
 
Hi, Take a look at our Authors on the left page and the summary of articles... :cool:

We need to wait the end of sales of Nr 17 issue in summer, then I will try to offer some screenshot to non-EU Laverda fans
while the EU readers can easily order the magazine.

One of our readers in UK, solved the problem asking to ship in another EU country where he frequently goes....a great example of passion we are glad to satisfy.

Cheers
 

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Cool. In my 40-odd years of Laverda ditherings I've never heard of it. Yeah, the RGS link is pretty obvious, down to the adjustable footpegs.

This one at least made it to prototype status, also by RG-design and very RGS-ey.
MOTOMORINI500Turbo-1791_1.jpg
 
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