MV Agusta Superveloce 800 2024 — Specifications

What if a motorcycle were no longer simply a vehicle, but a rolling sculpture signed by an artist? That is the bold wager of MV Agusta with this revisited Superveloce 800 by Daniel Arsham. Far from simple color variations, this machine is a contemporary work of art, a mechanical anachronism where one imagines a motorcycle from the future exhumed from an altered past. The base is this sublime Superveloce 800, already a stylistic oval with its trellis frame and 1970s café racer silhouette revisited in modern Italian style. Its three-cylinder engine of 798 cc delivers 147 horsepower at 13,000 rpm, a characteristic sound that resonates like a symphony for enthusiasts of the brand.

But Arsham has applied his mark, his concept of fictional archaeology. The motorcycle is frozen in an icy white, as if covered in a layer of eternal frost. Then come the “wounds,” these voluntary abrasions on the fairing or the seat cowl, resembling crystals having gnawed at the material. It is disconcerting, provocative, and radically transforms the object. We are light-years away from a simple customization. For the average motorcyclist, the exercise may seem obscure. For the collector who already owns a classic Superveloce 800, or who is looking for a unique piece, it is an unprecedented proposition.

Because that is what it is: an extremely limited work of art. Only six copies will be produced, reserved for the best clients of the Varese house. At this stage, discussing the standard catalog price of an MV Agusta Superveloce 800, which hovers around €22,600, no longer makes sense. Estimates for this Arsham series flirt with €40,000, a territory where the motorcycle becomes an investment, a curiosity for a gallery. It is no longer a question of comparing its pure performance with a Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS or a Ducati Streetfighter V4, but of contemplating its aesthetic and exclusive value.

Who is the target audience? Certainly not the Sunday rider or the track enthusiast in search of lap times. This machine is aimed at the wealthy aesthete, the collector for whom a garage is an extension of his art collection. The question of the reliability of the MV Agusta Superveloce 800, sometimes raised on forums, becomes almost secondary. Will it be ridden much, or will it mainly be exhibited? Will the unique sound of the triple, so characteristic of the MV Agusta Superveloce 800, often resonate?

This collaboration raises a fascinating question: how far can the motorcycle object transcend itself? MV Agusta, with this Arsham Superveloce 800, answers that it can become the support of an artist's dream, a future relic of the present as its creator likes it. It is audacious, probably inaccessible, and it recalls that motorcycle passion can also take unexpected paths, where oil, gasoline, and conceptual art meet.