Top 10... bikes named after race tracks

AJS Cadwell

AJS may be a historic British motorcycling name and one associated with some of the greatest racing motorcycles in history (the V4 and Porcupine to name but two) but, despite appearances, the current incarnation doesn’t have much in common. The AJS brand lives on in the UK but is now applied to Chinese-built, largely budget 125s. Its latest offering is named after the historic circuit in Lincolnshire, Cadwell Park, and is its most stylish bike yet. Claimed to be designed and engineered in the UK but manufactured in China, it’s another air-cooled 125cc single in a fairly basic tubular steel frame. Following the current fashion, however, it now has ‘50s/’60s café racer styling which suits its old school mechanicals well. 

Moto Guzzi Le Mans

Arguably the historic Italian firm’s most famous model of all, the original Le Mans debuted in 1976 as a further development of the 1971 750cc V7 Sport which in turn had been created to be the first five speed, 200 kg (440 lb), 200 kilometres per hour (120 mph), production motorcycle. The Le Mans, enlarged to 850cc and with new disc brakes and racy styling was, when launched, one of the world’s best performing motorcycles and grabbed the public’s attention. Today, a Mk 1 Le Mans is one of the most collectable of all Italian bikes. Six further models followed, Mk II, Mk III, Mk IV, Mk V and, most recently, the V11 Le Mans (pictured), which went out of production in 2004.

Laverda Jarama

While the UK in the mid-1970s got the Laverda Jota, as famously suggested by UK importers Slater Bros., the important American market got not just the Jota but also, in 1978, the Jarama, named after the race track in Spain. Effectively it was identical to the 3CL 1000cc triple as offered to most of Europe but with a different name. Unfortunately, it didn’t sell as well as the Jota so some dealers uprated the Jarama to Jota spec resulting in machines some call ‘Jarotas'. As a result, good, original examples are rare – especially in the UK.

Moto Guzzi V50 Monza

Moto Guzzi may be more famous for its Le Mans (see above), but the junior version, the similarly inspired, sporty V50 Monza was arguably almost as important. After De Tomaso took control of Moto Guzzi in 1973, although its big V-twins were prized, commercially the company was in financial trouble. One solution was a new, small-displacement family of its characteristic transverse V-twins. The V35 and V50, in 1976, were the result. Unfortunately, they were only partially successful so, to generate further interest a sporting version of the V50, with slightly more power, Le Mans-inspired styling and a similar name taken from a race track was launched in 1980: the Monza. Less well known is that a sporting V35 was also created. That bike was called the Imola.

Laverda Montjuic

As with compatriot Moto Guzzi, which followed its successful Le Mans superbike with a little ‘brother’, the Monza, so Laverda similarly attempted to follow-up the success of is superbike Jota with a middleweight spin-off. In 1977, Laverda launched a new, 500cc, twin cylinder eight-valve entry-level machine named the Alpina (soon changed to Alpino). This was followed in 1978 by an improved Alpino S and Formula 500 racer to support a single model race series. Then, in a similar fashion to the Jota, British importer Roger Slater then persuaded the Italian factory to produce a road legal version of the racer. Dubbed the Montjuic, again after a Spanish race track, though expensive it was briefly one of the most exotic middleweights you could buy.