history
MV Agusta is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1945. The company is derived from the Agusta aviation company founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923. Four years after he founded the aviation company, Augusta died and left the business to his four sons, Domenico, Vincenzo, Mario and Corrado. One of the four brothers, Vincenzo decided to create the MV Agusta motorcycle manufacturing company which released the first prototype in 1945. What's interesting is that Vincenzo wanted to name the company Vespa but, due to the scooter released by Piaggio, they settled on MV 98.
During the 1950s and the 1960s, MV Agusta produced small displacement bikes but as sales were starting to go down, the company decided to concentrate more on larger displacement bikes. As a result, they created a 250cc model, a 350cc, and then a 600cc four-cylinder bike which was later improved and transformed into a 750cc bike called 750 Sport (1970). The most notable small displacement bikes of the 50s and 60s and manufactured by MV Agusta were the Pullman, the Turismo Rapido and the Raid.
One the most important MV Agusta model of that time, the 750 Sport, which was a very expensive model, was updated and renamed to 1975S America. Moreover, it was then introduced on the U.S. market as a move meant to help the company evolve on the US industry. Because of the death of two of its owners, Vincenzo Agusta (1958) and Domenico Agusta (1971), the company started experiencing financial problems so in 1980 the motorcycle company was closed.
However, in 1997, MV Agusta was bought by Cagiva who revived the brand and released a brand new 750cc MV Agusta model range, dubbed F4 750. The series was interrupted in 2004 when the company was bought by Proton, a Malaysian car manufacturer.
Although most people were predicting a bright future for the newly-bought company, Proton decided to sell it so Agusta ended up once again in Italian ownership, being purchased by the financing company GEVI SpA.
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