AROUND THE TRACK

In theory this track test never even needed to take place. The Tuono Factory is a beast of a bike, pimped up with top-level tech and Öhlins pogos that it would look unequivocally at home on any out-and-out sportsbike. But it’s the motor that’s the bike’s trump card, sporting a testosterone inducing 1,100cc, 65 º V4 that puts hairs on your chest. I had high hopes for the Tuono and it became clear from the get-go that it wasn’t going to settle for the runner up spot around the fast and flowing Bruntingthorpe handling track.

Within a lap it’d mullered the previous fastest straight-line speed, and the way the thing was romping out of corners, free of any electronic intervention, had me convinced I’d found a winner. It was fun to ride, being both agile into bends and ‘characterful’ out of them. In fact, maybe ‘mental’ would be a better word to describe its corner exit mannerisms. The way the thing shook its head, as I cranked open the throttle with big lean still in the equation, made me feel like I was strapped to a Labrador that’d just devoured a family-size pack of sweets and snorted a few lines of sherbet, before washing it all down with a two-litre bottle of full-fat cola. The thing was off its rocker, which proved pretty entertaining to a point, but it did nothing for my lap time. It wasn’t just up front where the bike was kicking off either, as the torquey motor, with traction control switched off because even on the least intrusive setting it had proven too much of a handbrake, was overwhelming for the racy Pirelli Super corsa rubber the bike was shod with. What would start off as a wallow at the rear wheel quickly developed into unpredictable slides, altering the engine’s pitch as the motor suddenly found its chance to spin free. Again, it made for an exciting time, but as I ticked the laps off, my pace wasn’t improving. On lap seven I changed my approach, smoothing everything out, running a gear taller in a few places and standing the bike up more before opening up the throttle. This proved the right direction, and the lap times started tumbling a few tenths at a time over the final three laps. The Aprilia had been a top laugh to blitz around on, but I’d learned its powerful disposition could tie it in knots like a five-year-old can with shoe laces. To go fast was easy enough, but to go really fast took some thinking and a good chunk of restraint. I really liked the Tuono; it felt like a sportsbike with wide bars, sounded awesome and had brilliant front brakes – that could be made void of ABS. It was a special bike to ride. You just needed to know how to tame it.