Sporty – The Aprilia RSV4 Factory takes the lion’s share! – Aim for the summits starting from a blank sheet …

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The Aprilia RSV4 Factory takes the lion’s share !

Sporty - The Aprilia RSV4 Factory takes the lion's share! - Aim for the summits starting from a blank sheet ...

Beautiful to die for, equipped with the best components and an incredible V4, the new Aprilia RSV4 Factory is the scathing revenge of the Lion of Noale in Hypersports. Sensitive souls abstain: it is a barely civilized race animal… Test !

Aiming for the summits from a blank sheet…

Aprilia RSV4 Factory technical side

The new Aprilia RSV4 Factory releases a brand new 65 ° V4 of 999.6 cc, delivering 180 hp and 115 Nm of torque at 10,000 rpm. Impressive figures for this block which takes 13,600 rpm, and which displays a bore * stroke ratio of 78 * 52.3 mm with a compression ratio of 13: 1! Due to the opening of the V, the intake could be lowered as much as possible between the cylinders, thus promoting compactness. The same goes for the new distribution at Aprilia – chain and gears – which has made it possible to minimize the exhaust area: despite its countershaft responsible for absorbing vibrations, the V4 is more compact than the bi mounted on the RSV 1000 !

Resolutely modern, the rital mill is entirely controlled by a full accelerator. ride by wire three maps that can be operated on the handlebars. Sophisticated and perfectly developed, this technology replaces the good old accelerator cable with an electronic control unit and servomotors which decide the best opening of the two injection butterfly bodies, depending on the gear engaged, the engine speed and a multitude of other parameters. The device is accompanied by a Magneti Marelli electronic injection and variable-height intake ducts that promote low-end torque and high-power..

Specialty of the house, the frame – only 10.1 kg! – is a double aluminum beam with molded and stamped parts. Ultra rigid, it shows above all settings previously reserved for competition: the position and inclination of the steering sleeve, the height of the fork pivot and even that of the V4 are thus fully adjustable! Not to spoil anything, the RSV4 Factory adopts crazy peripherals: inverted and fully adjustable 43mm Ohlins fork treated with titanium nitride, shock absorber from the same source – equipped with small nitrogen bombs Piggy Back – also fully adjustable and braking provided by a formidable combination of Brembo monobloc radial calipers and 320 mm floating discs specially designed for the RSV4! The new forged aluminum rims weigh 1 kg less than those fitted to the RSV 1000 and the new face of Aprila does not forget to equip itself with a very efficient Ohlins steering damper and an extractable cassette box that controls an oil bath clutch with anti-dribble system !

The recipe for Aprilia RSV4 Factory? Take all the know-how of a manufacturer accumulating 33 titles of world champion in speed. Add to this the frustration of never having been able to compete with the references of the Hypersport segment with an RSV 1000 certainly balanced and efficient, but sorely lacking in watts to rise to the top of the bill. Sprinkle it all with the most advanced technologies, the best peripherals (see box opposite) and some 25 million euros of R&D: you get a completely new and radical sports car, the Aprilia RSV4 Factory !

Designed with Noale’s racing department – and its 254 Grand Prix victories! – the RSV4 required "only" three years of development for engineers who started from a blank sheet to give birth to a prototype exclusively focused on performance and efficiency! Eleven years after the launch of its RSV 1000, Noale’s coat of arms is back to business through the front door: a patiently awaited and planned return by the Venetian Lion, since its passage in the bosom of Piaggio !

However, unlike Ducati and KTM who have chosen to inflate the displacement of their sporty twins to replicate the unavoidable Japanese inline 4-cylinders – in top sales as in the Superbike world championship -, Aprilia s is given the means to surprise, even to upset the hierarchy of hypersports.

Starting with the RSV4 propellant: incredibly compact and smelling the "racing spirit" with all its on-board electronics, the 65 ° V4 entirely designed at Noale sends the Rotax twin-cylinder of the RSV 1000 back to Hell! Supercharged by double Weber-Marelli injectors and electronically controlled by an electronic accelerator type Ride-By-Wire, the 999.6 cc unit develops 180 hp on this "road" version and no less than 215 fiery stallions on the WSBK version! Yes, in France it will be 106 hp…

Cornerstone of the project, this new engine on a production sports car – there is indeed the V4 of the Desmosedici RR, but at 60,000 € the end and a distribution limited to a few hundred units … – is the result of Aprilia studies on all known architectures. Four cylinders in line, three legs, two-cylinder: the engineers have gamberged on all these types of engine before deciding on a four-cylinder V, according to them the best compromise between power, efficiency and size !

An ingenious choice – after all, Honda, Suzuki and Ducati use a V4 in MotoGP – and a daring one for a manufacturer rich in a successful experience of V engines, but who had no experience on the four-legged large displacement. Because as a manager of Aprilia France does not fail to point out, "the easy way to get up to speed quickly would have been to rely on an in-line four-cylinder, like one of our European competitors"… Who spoke of BMW with his new S1000 RR (read) ?

Dithyrambic, the French representatives of Aprilia in France are even inexhaustible on the merits and technological advances of the brand’s new spearhead! That said, the readers of the Sports-loving Site – it is well known that nothing escapes! – will argue that the accelerator Ride-by-wire was already present on the Yamaha R1 and R6 !

Just like the variable-length intake – at low revs, the long duct promotes torque while at full throttle, the intake manifold shortens in favor of power – which is found on the same motorcycles and some MVs. Agusta. While the handlebar-actuated triple mapping was introduced on the Suzuki GSX-R, then adopted by the YZF R1 2009…

What is new, however, is the combination of all these elements on the same machine! But also the almost endless possibilities of chassis adjustments and the degree of sophistication of the electronic accelerator….

Introduced on the Shiver – with varying degrees of success in its early days – the technology Ride-by-Wire of the RSV4 ignores a mechanical connection between the accelerator and the butterflies: the opening is entirely managed by a Marelli control unit of the latest generation. Each cylinder bank has a servomotor which operates exclusively on its two 48 mm butterflies. Thus, the management of the two rows – and consequently the quantity of fuel injected – can be controlled independently..

A tad gas plant on paper, this device allows Aprilia to modify at will the response of the engine to the throttle and also the power curve: for its production model, the Noale coat of arms has thus retained three maps that ” it is possible to change with a simple flick on the starter in neutral.

The Superbike – and that’s the word! – Italian can for example be understood in mode Road, with a smoother engine response and maximum power limited to 140 hp, or enjoy in mode Sport, which indeed delivers the 180 nags of the beast but limiting its ardor on the first three speeds. Finally, the RSV4 reveals its true face in mode Track, where power and torque curve are at their peak in each gear !

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