Laverda RGS1000 Corsa

The bike is, as far as possible, a two-wheeled equivalent of a designer Italian sports car, with a twin-camshaft rev-hungry engine and RG-Studios original and aerodynamic bodywork in the classically elegant mode ... a veritable Ferrari on two wheels. Tell that to a man who is experiencing the high-speed performance of the one-litre Laverda, and he will scoff at the insulated remoteness of a car-borne equivalent. One hundred and forty mph really feels like it when the wind is plucking at your back, and you can hear the distinctive wail of the robust three-cylinder exhaust note being swallowed up in your wake.

The process of civilization has given the RGS a quieter engine and a more subdued exhaust, to go with the new tailored image, not to mention new noise regulations of the 1980s. Not that that RGS is subdued. With 95 horsepower and a wind-cheating shape, it can run with the best of them, and top 140mph. The Jota's bad manners and vibration (as well as some of its urgency) have gone, replaced by a maturity that has broadened the power band to compensate. The later, smoother Laverda engine pulls strongly from low to high revs, and is well-mannered all the way.

Price as well as breeding separates the Laverda from the Japanese opposition. It is significantly more expensive, and in some ways rather old-fashioned. It has, for example, traditional twin rear shock absorbers, where its Oriental rivals have multi-adjustable rising-rate linkages operating single units.

The performance figures did not keep pace with the power war. The Italian factory at Breganze is too small to play that game. However, their market is among connoisseurs, who know that a bike with a good standing-quarter-mile time and a fearsome top speed is not necessarily better at traversing long distances at sustained high average speeds than a well-bred, well-balanced and amply powerful Italian thoroughbred.