Moto Guzzi
Daytona 1000

The Daytona's arrival towards the end of 1991 marked the first occasion where Moto Guzzi applied twin-cylinder with four-valves-per-cylinder to its big-bore superbike. Guzzi's air-cooled transverse v-twin had been around in two-valves-per-cylinder form since its early beginning, so an eight-valve version represented nothing less than a revolutionary step forward.

Going down the four-valve route like rivals Ducati was the obvious means of extracting more power from the old pushrod v-twin, but switching to twin overhead camshafts would have resulted in an engine too tall, too wide and too top heavy. It wouldn't have looked like a Guzzi either. So the factory adopted the ingenious 'cam in head' solution, employing two belt-driven camshafts positioned within the 'V', which acted on the valves via short pushrods and rockers. Like Ducati, Guzzi switched from carburettors to Weber-Marelli fuel injection for its new leading-edge model, which produced 95bhp, an increase of around ten horsepower over the old Le Mans 1000. The eight-valve engine went into an entirely new monoshock chassis, while the Daytona's styling recalled the looks of the original Le Mans of 1976.

With a production total of only 750, this represents a quite rare opportunity to acquire such a special motorcycle. Comes with German registration.