Peugeot RCZ R Bimota revealed
Peugeot Italy and bike company collaborate on one-off 304hp RCZ. Can we have it?
Officially it's a one-off concept without any production plans. Aside from the bold paint job, the Bimota is distinguished by additional interior Alcantara, a TomTom Bridge infotainment system (seemingly for the passenger to use) plus helmet and race suit storage. That's motorcycle influence you see. There are GoPros front and rear too. Leathers aren't mandatory.
Of more interest are the mechanical changes to the RCZ R. Through a new turbo dump valve, intake tweaks (red air filters make more power), a racing exhaust and an ECU remap, power has been raised to 304hp from 270. A 300hp Peugeot! And perhaps more to the point, 190hp per litre! A few stories we've seen are claiming an updated braking system with 380mm front discs and four-pot calipers, rather overlooking the fact the standard RCZ R has 380mm front discs and four-pot calipers. It would appear to be standard bar the engine upgrades.
PB104 is Bimota's vision of 'motorcycling passion on four wheels'. All well and good for a bit of brand promo but you would have to hope for something more than a concept eventually. Peugeot Sport are on a good form recently with the standard R and 208 30th so dare we suggest a Rallye? Ditching the rear seats (and the race suit storage) would save some weight, Bimota has proved the power is possible and, voila, the Rallye is reborn. It could even have some stickers. Then it could even take on the FWD 'ring record. But we're getting carried away. This is an RCZ R by Bimota. Very nice.
I think, though, that Bimota's days of offering a typically stonking engine produced by a mainstream manufacturer wrapped up in a chassis that can actualy cope with it are long, long gone. I wish they had succedded with their V-Due project
It would be wonderful if they took a VFR1200 engine, and wrapped that up in a chassis befiting a motogp grid
If it was a brand the public might recognize I could understand.
If it was some serious work from a small company to get a big stage I could understand.
But a company most of the public and few bikers have never heard of doing a paint and trim job makes no sense at all.
Bimota produced some of the most stunning bikes ever made, but why do this? Neither company gains anything.
They took over the company a couple of years ago - their first public launch was the BB3 at Milan in November 2013.
Love the jewel-like quality of the brand's bikes, but they are on a hiding to nothing at the moment given the quality of factory sportsbikes.
But, that Peugeot is pretty horrid in my opinion.
Piaggio group owns Moto Guzzi, Aprilia, Derbi, Gilera and Vespa.
Audi (VAG) owns Ducati 100%.
Mercedes Benz has 25% of MV Agusta.
A group of investor owns 100% of Bimota.
I think
I guess they need to find something new to do with the brand but hopefully they'll find something more befitting than this.
I've always thought of Bimota as the Italian equivalent to Indian motorcycles (from the US). Both of those companies have gone out of business, then been resurrected, so many times it's like watching Dragonball Z!
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