Now that Moto Guzzi’s small block V-Twin has come to full maturity—with its final growth to the 850ccs of the latest V9—it’s worth retracing the history of this controversial engine.
This engine was requested by the late Alejandro De Tomaso, after the failure of the Benelli 254 and the rather skimpy life of the Moto Guzzi 350 Four, and Benelli 504. It was around 1975 when Mr. De Tomaso put the De Tomaso Automobili technical staff to work on a twin-cylinder 350/500cc engine patterned around the same 90-degree, transverse Vee that had been contributing to the Moto Guzzi legend since 1965 (when the original 703cc V7 was officially introduced at
