Booming Italian twin-cylinder
trackday terrors have generally been the specialty of Ducati over the last 30
years; you might picture the odd orange Laverda parallel twin thrown
in when that company is flirting with solvency, but generally Ducati is the
go-to Latin track machine. Rarely do you picture a big, air-cooled, transverse
V-twin out of Mandello de Lario thundering out of a corner and scything past
the opposition. Moto Guzzi generally presents an air of staunch traditionalism,
a sort of Italian BMW that is somehow more passionate than the Munich brand but
far more rational than the exuberant offerings from Bologna. Guzzi riders are
weathered, skilled old men who thump along the backroads, do their own repairs,
and generally abstain from high-speed shenanigans. Or at least that’s the
stereotype, one that was briefly blown into the weeds by the spectacularly
uncharacteristic MGS-01 Corsa.
