Aprilia RSV4 1000 Factory SUPERBIKE 2010 — Specifications

When Noale decided to return to the top of the world Superbike championship, it wasn't to play a cameo role. The Aprilia RSV4 Factory arrived in 2009 with a substantial argument: a 65-degree V4 hewn from the heart, 998 cc distributed in a compact block that had nothing to envy the ambitions of Bologna. The Ducati 1198 R was then the undisputed benchmark, but Noale was not going to let the adversary reign without sharing on European paddocks.

For 2010, the atmosphere changed radically in the Aprilia Racing garage. Exit the understated Factory trim, place to the Alitalia colors that invade the fairing of the Superbike. The green, white and red transalpine cover a machine that has nevertheless not waited for sponsors to impress. Agip also places its logo on the lower fairing, and Leon Camier joins Max Biaggi as lieutenant — the reigning British Superbike champion, that's quite a calling card to complete the team.

What makes this RSV4 Factory formidable is the mechanical equation. 162 kg dry weight for 210 horsepower, that gives a power-to-weight ratio that leaves few rivals at the height. The 6-speed gearbox transmits energy by chain, and the double perimeter aluminum frame encloses the whole with a rigidity calculated to the millimeter. Öhlins TTX suspensions — 43 mm inverted fork at the front, TTX25 mono-shock at the rear — represent the best in the Swedish preparer's catalog. You don't tinker with standard equipment on a machine of this level. Four-piston radial Brembo calipers on 320 mm discs ensure braking, with the brutality expected on a track where every centimeter of late braking counts.

On paper, the 330 km/h announced in maximum speed and the 23-liter tank complete a portrait of perfect coherence for the discipline. This RSV4 is not designed for Sunday tourism: it is aimed at prepared riders, capable of exploiting sophisticated electronics and suspension settings that take time and expertise to master. In the hands of Biaggi, who knows the development of the machine since its foundations, this sensations factory had all the cards to worry the competition in the championship.

The bet was audacious. Returning to the highest level with an unprecedented V4 architecture, in a category dominated for years by Italian twins and Japanese four-cylinders, was almost an industrial provocation. Aprilia fully embraced it, without compromise on components or sporting ambitions. The paddock had good reason to closely monitor this machine dressed in the colors of an airline that, itself, was accustomed to flying high.