The history of the modern MV company is synonymous with the history of the Castiglionis, a family of light industrialists from northern Italy. Spearheaded by the brothers, Giovanni and Claudio, the lifelong motorcycle enthusiasts were looking for a way to get involved in the bike world in a more profound way than simple retailing, and when the Italian interests of the Harley Davidson company were up for grabs in the guise of the Aermacchi brand, they snapped it up and began the production and development of small two-strokes which they quickly re-branded Cagiva (‘ca’ for Claudio, ‘gi’ for Giovanni and ‘va’ for Varese where the factory was based).  Under this name the company quickly grew in the mid 80s, coincidentally just as the last of the great historic Italian brands, Ducati, was experiencing huge difficulties as it sought to transform its decaying air-cooled line-up with a new water-cooled 4 valve range. Instantly realising the potential of the new multi-valve prototype, and with cash no doubt from prior manufacturing interests rather than the sale of small 2-strokes, the Castiglionis were able to acquire the Bologna brand and soon incorporated it under the Cagiva group umbrella, shrewdly installing the genius of a certain Massimo Tamburini (the ‘ta of Bimota) as its chief designer alongside student prodigy, Massimo Bordi, the engineer responsible for the new 4-valve design.

The rest, as they say, is history. The 851, quickly followed by the 888 went on to re-establish Ducati on the race tracks of the world and the following third generation model, the 916, became the iconic superbike of the mid 90s, re-asserting Ducati’s credibility as a major player in the production of superbikes and establishing it as the unequivocally premier Italian brand.

However, this success came at a price, and the crippling costs needed to fund the R&D of the 916 plus the Castiglioni’s obsession with racing ( whilst competing in the superbike world championship with Ducati they simultaneously entered and won in the even more expensive 2-stroke 500cc GPs) meant that by 1996 Ducati found itself again at the point of bankruptcy, with warehouses full of incomplete bikes. Fortunately, the immense potential of the brand was obvious and buyers were found in the shape of venture capitalists, Texas pacific Group. However, TPG insisted on a majority share and the Castiglionis very reluctantly lost control of the company and with some of the cash from the sale returned to Varese not so much to lick their wounds but to put in motion the first steps to building what is now known as the MV F4. Originally, the bike was to be billed as a Cagiva, but when the historic MV marque also came up for sale (the business itself despite being the most successful ever in motorcycle Grand Prix had gone bust two decades earlier) the Castiglionis snapped it up and simply instructed Tamburini whom they had taken with them from Ducati to build the world’s best superbike.

Of course, Tamburini had been working on just such an idea as long ago as 1992 whilst simultaneously designing the vee twin 916, and the bike that is now the F4 was thus originally a Ducati design, so having been ousted from his own company it must have been with great glee that Castiglioni unveiled it to the world in 1998. At this stage, the perennially financially precarious Cagiva Group probably hadn’t even decided if they would go ahead with production, but when they saw the reaction of the world’s press and public, it was as if the project had its own internal dynamic and they had no choice. The MV F4750 was born and so beautiful and majestic was the design that no-one doubted for a minute that it wasn’t a worthy successor to the original MV. It was born authentic.