Piero Laverda V6 and Drysdale V8

Piero Laverda Visits Australia

The year 2017 saw Victoria fete Piero Laverda and his friends when the Laverda Corse team from Italy visited DAM Classic Racing in Victoria (video content). Many riders on all types and brands of motorcycle turned out for this amazing opportunity to meet and talk with Piero Laverda in person.

Photo courtesy Greg Parish ACS: Piero Laverda addresses the crowd at DAM Classic Racing 2017

DAM Classic Racing Pty Ltd staged the rally at their workshop for riders to meet the Laverda Corse team and Piero Laverda, the brother of Massimo who together were the masterminds of the motorcycle branch of the family business. These two men were the driving force in the creation of the famous Laverda motorcycles that became the catalysts for long standing friendships and adventurous lifestyles for many people over many years. These bikes had represented a certain character of a person that created friendships and sparked romances that often became lifelong relationships. Laverda motorcycles had been the instrument of youthful hooligans to burn off testosterone driven energies. These machines inspired scenes that still initiate laughter and fond memories of time spent with good friends, epic journeys around Australia, rallies and race weekends.

Photo courtesy Greg Parish ACS: Laverda Corse Team at DAM Classic Racing 2017. 

Piero brought the awe-inspiring Laverda V6 with him from Italy to the Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney Australia and DAM Classic Racing financed and arranged transport for John Nickles’ Motorcycle Motion 750cc /18,000rpm V8 motorcycle to be shipped north with the agreement of having award winning journalist and famed Laverda Racer Alan Cathcart to ride it side by side with Piero Laverda riding the 1000cc V6 Laverda at the International Festival Of Speed.

Photo courtesy Greg Parish ACS: Laverda 1000 V6 at the Festival Of Speed Australia 2017

Photo: John Nickles' unique Drysdale 750 V8 at the Festival Of Speed Australia 2017

For the enthusiasts trackside it was a sight and sound like no other to see these two mighty engines on the track together.

John Nickles, a creative entrepreneur with businesses in Australia and the Phillipines, had commissioned and financed DMCo to build this extraordinary bike in the mid ‘90s. In its original configuration it was fueled by 8 carburettors when first test ridden on the same day by Cathcart and Parish at Calder Park Raceway in June 1997. The relatively heavy throttle was source of humour between the two racers because even though it was heavy by most standards, the effort required to pull the cable to activate the eight carburettors was not significantly heavy when compared to that of a Laverda Jota!

Photo courtesy Greg Parish ACS: Greg Parish with Alan Cathcart

Neville Hazelman Racing soon replaced the eight individual carburettors with a fuel injection system. Hazelman tested the 750 V8 extensively on his water brake engine dynamometer to determine optimum exhaust specifications and then with great skill Phil de Konig and Harold Blewitt worked to encourage the long pipes to coil imaginatively over the rear wheel. Their work was a piece of art for the common man to see.

Photo courtesy Greg Parish ACS: Developing fuel injection for the Drysdale V8 on the dynamometer 

Subsequent models were fitted with a different timing chain arrangement and the capacity was enlarged to 1000cc. In this respect the original 750cc V8 machine commissioned by Nickles is singularly unique and is a very rare machine indeed.

[John Nickles developed cancer and passed away in the Phillipines in 2016. In the event of his death John had entrusted the sale of the 750 V8 to DMCo and asked that the proceeds of its sale go to provide for Nickles' widow and daughter. No commercial sales advertisement has ever been placed.]

Specially made for the 2017 International Festival of Speed event, embroidered business shirts displaying a map of Australia surrounding the event title were designed by Angus Parish and presented to the Italian Team to commemorate their visit. The Laverda Corse Team wore them every day for the duration of the event.

Photo courtesy Greg Parish ACS: Greg Parish presents commemorative shirts to Piero Laverda 2017

 Laverda riders from Victoria and all across Australia joined in the lunchtime parade around the race circuit. Never before had so many Laverda been seen in one place in Australia. It was a grand sight, and sound. At the Gala Dinner for the International Festival of Speed Piero unveiled the Laverda SFC/4 and announced that Greg Parish from DAM Classic Racing was to be the first rider to officially test-ride this evolution of the air-cooled, fuel injected, 180º parallel twin. Greg felt very honoured to be selected to display the agile abilities and speed of the air cooled fuel injected Laverda 668 based race-spec machine to the world and Australian Motorcycle News magazine reported the test with photos promoting the latest creation of Laverda Corse.

The experience of the 2017 International Festival Of Speed featuring the machines of the Laverda brothers and the carnival atmosphere created by the sponsors and exhibitors was extraordinary and a truly unique event in Australia.

Photo: Greg Parish test rides Laverda's SFC4 at the International Festival Of Speed Australia 2017

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