Aprilia RSV550 prototype confirmed

When pushed for answers concerning the possibility of wedging Aprilia's 550 V-twin into the legendary RS250 chassis, Aprilia's Motorcycle Product Manager, Francesco Polimeni, smiled and said with a heavy accent, "Yes. It is a beautiful engine. In fact, we have a prototype at the factory." Wow, so you put it in the RS250 chassis, right? "No. Actually, the RS125 chassis is, as you know, oversized an...

By: Grant Ray

Nov 4, 2009 at 10:36am ET

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When pushed for answers concerning the possibility of wedging Aprilia's 550 V-twin into the legendary RS250 chassis, Aprilia's Motorcycle Product Manager, Francesco Polimeni, smiled and said with a heavy accent, "Yes. It is a beautiful engine. In fact, we have a prototype at the factory." Wow, so you put it in the RS250 chassis, right? "No. Actually, the RS125 chassis is, as you know, oversized and very robust. So we put the engine in that." Get out.

The bad news is that the project is in stasis thanks to the economy tanking. That will likely change once the economy picks back up or Aprilia sees enough demand for the machine in the market to greenlight it, whichever comes first. The current engine, he acknowledged, would have to be retooled with considerably more robustness to deal with continued use as a daily driver. While still very much a track bike, he stressed the RSV550 would be manufactured along the same lines as the company's dedicated street bikes for better reliability and and less maintenance.

Already huge fans of the RS chassis, we were more than a little excited by the prospect of seeing the platform reborn into what could be the most brilliant machine since Terblanche's SuperMono. We're also betting the diminutive prototype is devastating in the corners, able to out-handle it's bulkier, heavier inline-4 rivals.

A clear nod to the golden era of Grand Prix road racing, before the rise of the 2-strokes, the ultra-light, near 500cc V-Twin 4-stroke probably won't be cheap if when it gets made. But if the successes and characteristics of the RS125 and both the SXV and RXV are any indication of the RSV550's capabilities, we'd definitely be willing to starve a little.

So you know, the image above unfortunately isn't real. We just couldn't help ourselves from playing and thought this might be something close.