Massimo Tamburini (November 28, 1943 – April 6, 2014) was an Italian

motorcycle design Motorcycle design can be described as activities that define the appearance, function and engineering of motorcycles. Professionally it is a branch of industrial design, similar to automotive design using identical techniques and methodology, bu ...

er for Cagiva,

Ducati Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. () is the motorcycle-manufacturing division of Italian company Ducati, headquartered in Bologna, Italy. The company is directly owned by Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini, whose German parent company is A ...

, and

MV Agusta MV Agusta (, full name: MV AGUSTA Motor S.p.A., original name: Meccanica Verghera Agusta or MV) is a motorcycle manufacturer founded by Count Domenico Agusta on 19 January 1945 as one of the branches of the Agusta aircraft company near Milan in ...

, and one of the founders of

Bimota Bimota is an Italian manufacturer of custom and production motorcycles. It was founded in 1973 in Rimini by Valerio Bianchi, Giuseppe Morri, and Massimo Tamburini. The company name is a portmanteau derived from the first two letters of each of ...

. Tamburini's designs are iconic in their field, with one critic calling him the "

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was in ...

of motorbike design". His Ducati 916 and

MV Agusta F4 The MV Agusta F4 is an inline four-cylinder sport bike made by MV Agusta from 1999 until 2018. It was the motorcycle that launched the resurrection of the brand in 1998. The F4 was created by motorcycle designer Massimo Tamburini at CRC (Cagiva ...

were included in the Guggenheim Museum's '' The Art of the Motorcycle'' exhibit of 1998–1999. He lived and worked in

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

at the Cagiva Research Center (, CRC), a subsidiary of Cagiva now

, from which he retired on December 31, 2008.

Early life

Tamburini was born on November 28, 1943, in

Rimini Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Arimin ...

, where his family were farmers. Although he aspired to attend university, for financial reasons he instead attended the ''Istituto Tecnico Industriale di Rimini'', a

technical school In the United States, a technical school is a type of two-year college that covers specialized fields such as business, finance, hospitality, tourism, construction, engineering, visual arts, information technology and community work. Assoc ...

in Rimini. According to his biography published by the City of Rimini, he did not finish his technical education for health reasons, and began working at age 18 on heating ductwork.

Career

Tamburini said, "I have always had a huge passion for motorcycles—my mother used to complain about it when I was a little boy, calling it my obsession! I have never had any desire to design anything else." His exposure to the motorcycle industry began when he attended the world championship race at Monza in 1961. Captivated by the sound of the MV Agusta's four stroke engine ridden by Provini, and entirely self-taught in design, Tamburini eventually devoted his life to the making of motorcycles. While Tamburini owned a

heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces. ...

business in his home town of Rimini, he was becoming known for his race tuning, improving motorcycles' power and handling, as well as making them lighter. Rimini was a motorcycling enthusiast's town, being near a Benelli motorcycle factory, and the site of many road races following World War II. The MV Agusta 600 four was Tamburini's particular specialty, for which he was known "throughout Italy", according to Mick Walker, who said, "the transformation of what had been an ugly and slow touring bike into a sleek and fast sportster was truly sensational." Tamburini created his first motorcycle design in 1971, customizing an MV Agusta 750 Sport by welding the frame himself. In 1973, Tamburini, Valerio Bianchi, and Giuseppe Morri founded Bimota. Previously the three had been designing and fabricating

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

ducts. The company name was a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsDucati ST2, saying, "I think the ST2 is an attempt to follow a Japanese concept, and this shouldn't be done by Italians." After 11 years at Bimota, Tamburini left and for a short time joined Roberto Gallina's 500 cc Grand Prix world championship team. Then, in February 1985, he joined

Claudio Castiglioni Claudio Castiglioni is an Italian lightweight rowing, lightweight rower. He won a gold medal at the 1982 World Rowing Championships in Lucerne with the lightweight men's Eight (rowing), eight. References

Year of birth missing (living p ...

's Cagiva Group. Cagiva had acquired Ducati that year, and Tamburini worked designing both Ducati and Cagiva brand motorcycles. In 1985, Bimota was under "controlled administration", or ''fallimento'', similar to US Chapter 11 reorganization and Tamburini had officially left the company, Giuseppe Morri having purchased Tamburini's Bimota stock. Tamburini's successor as chief designer at Bimota was Federico Martini. Even though Tamburini was in his new position as head of Cagiva's design studio, he continued work back at Bimota, in spite of the falling out with his partners that led to his departure, working on the Bimota DB1 prototype, a bike that used the engine of the Ducati Pantah 750, which was to be presented at

EICMA EICMA (''Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori''), or the Milan Motorcycle Shows is an annual trade show in Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and ...

, the

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

motorcycle show. Martini was responsible for the engineering of the DB1, Tamburini, as a consultant to Cagiva, handled the styling. The first Ducati he designed was the Paso 750, a bike that helped move fully enclosing bodywork into the mainstream.

Ducati 916

Tamburini later designed the now classic Ducati 916. South African motorcycle designer Pierre Terblanche and Tamburini were working side by side at the Cagiva Research Center (CRC) on new designs, Tamburini on the 916 and Terblanche on the Ducati Supermono. Terblanche's Supermono, which shared several visual cues with the Tamburini's 916, was shown to the public before the 916, leaving the impression that Tamburini was influenced by Terblanche. In fact, the influence was the other way around, with Terblanche incorporating ideas that Tamburini shared with him in the design studio from his 916 design. Journalist Kevin Ash said that the roots of the 916's styling were found elsewhere, outside Ducati and CRC. Ash said that the timing of the public debut of

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

's advanced oval-piston, 32-valve V4 engine

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

racing bike, the NR750, in August 1991, indicates that NR750 influenced the final shape of the 916, though Tamburini, Terblanche and others at Ducati would not confirm this, Tamburini only saying that he was influenced by "existing designs." Ash said that Tamburini showed a better understanding of visual weight than the NR750's designers, and the 916 design, "moved it forward, personalized, and Ducati-fied it, in particular the blend of sharp edges and sweeping curves, which, like most innovation, broke existing rules."

After Ducati

When the Castiglioni brothers sold Ducati in 1996, Tamburini stayed with Cagiva, where he designed the MV Agusta F4 to great acclaim. While designing the F4 c. 1996, he was diagnosed with

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that su ...

; his son Andrea said he wanted to survive the illness long enough to finish the F4 and save MV Agusta. His final motorcycle was the MV Agusta F3 675. ''

Cycle World ''Cycle World'' is a motorcycling magazine in the United States. It was founded in 1962 by Joe Parkhurst, who was inducted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame as "the person responsible for bringing a new era of objective journalism" to the US. ''Cy ...

''s Brian Catterson spotted Tamburini riding his creation, the F4, in the hills of

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

during the 2001 ''Motorgiro d'Italia''. Tamburini retired from Cagiva in December, 2008.

Illness and death

Tamburini was diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

in November 2013 and underwent

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...

near his residence in San Marino. His health continued to decline, and he died on April 6, 2014 at age 70. Around 500 people attended his funeral in Rimini on April 9, including the mayor in his official capacity.

Motorcycle designs

* Bimota Tesi 1D * Bimota KB2 * Bimota DB1 *

Ducati Paso The Ducati Paso was introduced in 1986 with the slogan "Il nostro passato ha un grande futuro" (Our past has a great future). The name was in honour of racer Renzo Pasolini, nicknamed "Paso", who died on 20 May 1973 in an accident at the Monza ...

* Ducati 916 ** Ducati 748 ** Ducati 996 ** Ducati 998 * Cagiva Aletta Oro * Cagiva Freccia * Cagiva Mito * Moto Morini Dart * F4 750 Serie Oro * F4 750 S * F4 750 Senna * F4 750 * F4 750 * F4 750 750 SPR and SR * F4 1000 * F4 AGO * F4 Tamburini * F4 Senna * F4 Veltro * F4 750 R 312 * F4 750 CC * MV Agusta Brutale *

Tamburini Corse Tamburini Corse is an Italian-Sammarinese motorcycle manufacturer. It was founded in 2009 by Andrea Tamburini, son of Massimo Tamburini, originally producing small metal components. The T12 Massimo, introduced in 2016, has a unique feature allowi ...

T12 Massimo (Released posthumously) project realized by his son Andrea Tamburini

Awards

Tamburini was awarded the ''Sigismondo d'Oro'' in 2012, the highest award of the city of Rimini.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

The Man behind the MV Agusta F4 ... and the Ducati 916
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamburini, Massimo Italian motorcycle designers Ducati designers 1943 births 2014 deaths Bimota People from Rimini MV Agusta