Thursday, March 22, 2012

VRP500

My last entry was about the Librenti 500, when I made it I was thinking about that other illusive bike that raced in the 500cc class at the same time, the VRP500. I almost could not find any information about it on the web, so I contacted Andy Leuthe and Carlo Verona. This is the information I received from them. First Carlo made a frame for Andy's Suzuki XR70 reed valve engine, after that Carlo, with contribution of Andy, made a total new bike with a home made V4 engine. One of the bikes was for Andy the other for an Italian racer. Nowadays Carlo still has one bike the other was sold, the whereabouts of this bike are unknown. The bike that Carlo has is in pieces but he has plans to restore it. Carlo still runs a company, Verona Racing Parts (VRP) this company makes König like airboat race engines. Andy and Carlo many thanks for the pics and the information!
Some specs of the 1992 VRP500
Engine: V4 500 - with 2 crankshafts
Carburettors: 39mm Dell'Orto VHSB
Bore - Stroke: 54 x 54
Power: 145 HP tested at the rear wheel at 12000 rpm
For more pics see
VRP500

Monday, March 5, 2012

Librenti 500

Here a few links to some pics and vids of a very rare 500cc GP machine the Librenti V4 500cc two stroke. In the pic above you see Marco Papa and the 1992 bike. These bikes were made by Giancarlo Librenti who died in 1993 at the age of 56. Librenti is one of the more illusive Italian makes, just like VRP. First you had Cagiva and then Paton and after that the small ones like Librenti and VRP.
For more pics see
Librenti
Start up of a Librenti
Part 1
Part 2