Product Review

This edition of The Motorcycle Files takes its readers on a truly historic ride as Alan Cathcart conducts an exclusive test at Mallory Park in England of one of only two surviving four-cylinder 1957 MV Agusta 500cc Grand Prix racers. Also included are an in-depth history and technical analysis plus an extensive gallery of close-up detail photographs of one of the actual machines raced to four world titles by John Surtees.
John won seven world titles in all, as he also won three more 350cc World Championships on this machine’s smaller brother, doing the 350/500cc double in 1958, 1959 and 1960 after first taking the 500cc crown in 1956. The Englishman is also the only man ever to be World Champion on both two and four wheels, a feat he achieved by winning the Formula One title for Ferrari in 1964.
This version of the four-cylinder MV Agusta machine was first seen in 1956 and was the initial step in MV Agusta’s 17-year domination of the 500cc World Championship. It is powered by a double-overhead camshaft four-cylinder motor entirely constructed in the workshops of the Italian Agusta helicopter company at the behest of its mercurial owner, the domineering but determined Count Domenico Agusta.
And after John Surtees had quit motorcycle racing in favour of Formula One fame and fortune, the original incarnation of the MV four - in both 500 and 350cc form – went on to win six more World Championships.
Rhodesian, Gary Hocking won both 350 and 500cc titles in 1961 and English racing legend, Mike Hailwood, won four 500cc Championships in succession between 1962 and 1965 before departing first for Honda and then to F1 and sports car racing. That 1965 season was the last for this version of the four-cylinder MV Agusta.