MV Agusta’s V5 engine goes wild with five cylinders
The Italian manufacturer shook the motorcycle world in the autumn when it unveiled its first five cylinder engine. It challenged long held assumptions and questioned the idea that sporting credibility ends with four cylinders. The concept carried the name Cinque Cilindri. Now MV Agusta confirms that series production is planned to begin in 2027.
Rather than refining a familiar layout, MV Agusta chose a road rarely taken. The Cinque Cilindri uses a V configuration with an extremely narrow cylinder angle, closer in spirit to the automotive VR5 concept than to a traditional motorcycle V engine. All five cylinders share a single crankshaft, while the valve train employs three camshafts working simultaneously, one for intake and two for exhaust.
This unconventional architecture allowed engineers to keep the engine surprisingly compact. According to MV Agusta, it ended up smaller than both inline four and V4 units. Weight stayed firmly under control too. The complete engine weighs less than 60 kilograms, a figure that carries real meaning in the world of high performance motorcycles, far more than any marketing slogan.
Early technical figures suggest that this was never just an exercise in spectacle. The Cinque Cilindri revs to 16,000 rpm and delivers up to 240 horsepower. Those numbers place the five cylinder straight into the company of the most aggressive superbike engines on the market.
MV Agusta plans to offer the engine in capacities ranging from 850 to 1150 cubic centimetres. The same core design is intended to suit track focused superbikes as well as larger sport touring machines. The company does not see the V5 as a niche experiment but as the foundation for an entire future engine family.
The first production motorcycle powered by the new engine is scheduled to appear in 2027. Which model will get the honour remains unclear. Given MV Agusta’s history, it is safe to assume the debut will be anything but quiet or understated.
At a time when ever tighter regulations and electrification push combustion engines towards their perceived limits, MV Agusta responds with a technical provocation rather than cautious adaptation. If the Cinque Cilindri reaches the road in a form close to the concept, it will serve as a reminder that the internal combustion engine still has room to evolve, at least for those bold enough to rewrite the rules instead of merely following them.
