MV Agusta 800 BRUTALE DIABLO 2016 — Specifications

When Varese decides to paint a motorcycle as a tribute to a tire, the result looks like nothing else in any competitor's catalog. The Brutale 800 Diablo is not a special edition in the commercial sense of the term, a crude decal slapped on an existing model to justify an inflated price tag. It is a statement of intent, almost a manifesto, jointly signed by MV Agusta and Pirelli, two Italian houses that have shared an exclusive partnership since 2011 — as discreet as it is steadfast.

At the heart of the matter is this 798cc three-cylinder engine producing 116 horsepower at 11,500 rpm. A figure slightly behind the most powerful versions in the lineage, but the Brutale was never a track machine. Its playground is the winding road, the Sunday morning ride, the hard acceleration between two corners. The 83 Nm of torque arrives at 7,600 rpm, which means the machine responds before the rider has even finished rolling his wrist. At 175 kilograms dry, on a steel tubular trellis frame reinforced with aluminum plates, every bite on the two 320mm front discs becomes an exercise in surgical precision. The 830mm seat height will filter out shorter riders, but those who settle in will have before them a machine whose top speed exceeds 237 km/h — a speed that few country roads invite you to explore.

What truly distinguishes this version is the graphic coherence of the project. Black dominates, thick, serious, almost menacing across the flanks of the 16.5-liter tank. Then red erupts — precise, calculated — on the front mudguard, the intake scoops, the cut beneath the seat. And most of all on the sidewalls of the tires themselves, those Pirelli Diablo Rosso IIIs whose name sits on the tank without apology. Red invades the outer edges of the rubber, leaving white only where the Pirelli calligraphy stakes its signature. This is total design, a visual continuity that few manufacturers dare push this far. BMW delivers clean monochromes, Ducati plays the classic red card, Kawasaki banks on institutional green. MV Agusta, here, tells a story between two Italian industrialists, and that story has a face.

The target audience is not looking for the versatility of a Triumph Street Triple or the value-for-money of a Yamaha MT-09. The rider who puts themselves forward for the Brutale Diablo wants something exclusive, a touch ostentatious, authentically Latin. They accept the maintenance concessions that come with Varese machinery, they know the service intervals and their cost, and they decide that this is part of the deal. In return, they get a motorcycle that looks like nothing else in a parking lot, a sharp and biting three-cylinder note that no Japanese four-cylinder can replicate, and electronics sophisticated enough to manage this engine's excesses without smothering the sensations.

The Brutale 800 Diablo is an object of desire before it is a means of transport. It wears on its flanks the pride of a manufacturing tradition and the unabashed vanity of a brand that has never sought to appeal to the masses. That is not a flaw. It is its very definition.