The 1987 running of the World GP Championships was fought on 500cc two-stroke machines – per the seller, this is the steed of Raymond Roche, who placed 13th overall on the #8 of Team Cagiva – Alstare (Bastos).
This is the C587 variant of Cagiva’s GP500, a bike that was also campaigned by legends such as Eddie Lawson, Randy Mamola, and Doug Chandler. The 587 featured a new engine with a dramatic reduction in angle between the cylinders of the V-4 (from 90 down to 56) – peak power was 145hp at the crank. Dry weight was just 268 pounds, though that would significantly increase when ready to race as the tank held 8.5 gallons. Raymond didn’t have a ton of success, and it would take Cagiva until 1992 to get their first GP win with Eddie Lawson piloting in Hungary. Still, it’s nice to see a top-level race machine without a bunch of buttons for electrical systems, isn’t it? Now think about trying to wring out 145 horsepower out of a two-stroke V4 without any electrical aids…
Impressively, the seller states that this is perfectly working in “preserved condition”, though annoyingly they don’t show it running in a video that’s dominated by modern electronic music. That sentence makes me sound old.
Find this GP racer for sale in Reggio Emilia, Italy for approximately $143,000 here at Ruote da Sogno.