I had never felt this sensation before, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. Make that a frozen finger, courtesy of the frigid eastern Pennsylvania winter I was riding through. Perplexed but happy, the Moto-Euro/Fast By Ferracci V11 Sport provided the entertainment by offering heaping doses of rapid forward motion every time the throttle was opened. But, shiver, it was time to turn back. We've offered goodies in the past; key chains, t-shirts, calendars and more, but an Official Moto-Euro popsicle? Not going to happen. Check with me in July.

Suddenly it hit me. That aforementioned feeling? It was last summer, bopping around on one of Ghezzi & Brian's sneaky fast and oh-so lovely Supertwin 1100s. That's it! The talented team at Fast By Ferracci has managed to pour enough horsepower in the Sport to make it feel 100 pounds lighter. Impressive, when you come to realize the changes haven't been wholesale ones, but instead a carefully calibrated series of modifications that are, aside from the exhaust, impossible to detect from merely viewing the motorcycle.

The Science Of Speed is nothing new to FBF founder Eraldo Ferracci, whose resume charts over 50 years of speed-tuning motorcycles. At a very early age in his hometown of Pesaro, Italy, Eraldo found work in a shop that supported Marco Benelli's (son of Giuseppe, the oldest of the six Benelli founders) European racing team. By the age of 15, Eraldo was a crew member for champion rider Libero Liberatti, who gave the young Italian some of his first lessons in speed. Those skills, combined with his ever-increasing knowledge, would quickly translate into a factory ride. In his roadracing career, Eraldo piloted MotoBi, Moto Morini, and Gilera, becoming Italian National Champion in the 125cc class in 1963. In 1964, Marco Benelli asked Eraldo to forgo his racing career and devote himself to becoming the head of R&D. Three years later, Eraldo was asked to leave his homeland to set up a new Benelli factory near Philadelphia.

Exactly 17 years later, Ducati in Italy agreed to produce engines for its rivals at Cagiva, and by the middle of 1985 Cagiva owned them outright. With several ties to both Ducati and Cagiva (where many of Eraldo's old friends now worked) the partnership between Ducati and Fast by Ferracci was a happy and successful one. Beginning in 1987, Ferracci supported Ducati mounted privateers, and by the late '80s found great success in Twins competition. In 1990, Jamie James competed in World Superbike on a FBF Ducati, with Eraldo winning two AMA Tuner of the Year awards. Rider Doug Polen won half of the WSB races Team FBF entered in 1991 and '92 and followed that by dominating AMA Superbike for the next two years, Polen winning the Championship in 1993, and Aussie Troy Corser a year later. A legacy was born as Fast By Ferracci was now world famous and renown for speed.

The Guzzi/Ferracci marriage? Credit Ferracci sales associates Victor Castaneda Jr. and Ed Perry for the initial push, reasoning that new Guzzis on the floor would blend very nicely with (of course) Ducati and the other European exotics FBF offers. More strong ties exist as an industry insider; Eraldo's oldest son, Larry Ferracci, is President of nearby Cagiva USA, importers of Husqavarna, Cagiva and MV Agusta. Making such a commitment is no small issue for FBF, which offers performance upgrades and accessories for each of these brands in its catalog. Never one to do anything halfway, taking on Moto Guzzi would require (in Eraldo's eyes) a thorough study of the Guzzi family of motorbikes and the freedom to offer his customers something very special. Satisfied, Ferracci and General Manager, Hoak Wilson sealed the relationship with Guzzi's John Stoddard and former US boss, Alex DiBagno.

Our black 2000 Moto Guzzi V11 Sport was purchased by the publisher in 2001, shortly before the release of the first issue of M-E. Although the Sport has been very reliable during its first 4000 miles, it had exhibited several warts: the occasional hot-ping for example, iffy injection manners, and a vague high-speed weave. We learned of the FBF/Moto Guzzi connection from the good folks at Guzzi USA and made the call. Although Ferracci has offered a piston (developed in conjunction with Wiesco) and exhaust crossover upgrade for the Cali-series for a short time, the prototype 'first series' performance kit for the sporting V11/Le Mans models entailed more research, but was now ready for testing. We had the mouse, Ferracci dangled the cheese, and the Sport hitched a ride to Pennsylvania.

Our initial impression of Ferracci's workshop is that of nearly surgical cleanliness -- the very definition of organization. We meet Eraldo, Service Manager Phillip Seiberlich, and mechanic, Jason Pellengahr and began our education of the FBF/M-E V11 Sport. "This kit is designed for easy installation by the owner," reports Ferracci in a still-thick Italian accent, "straightforward engineering." Starting at the top of the engine, our Sport has received a set of FBF's oversize (40mm exhaust/47mm intake) stainless valves, running in the stock guides and re-machined seats to the correct diameter. Also included was a mild porting/polishing to both inlet and exhaust tracts. Mild? "The stock finishing is quite good," says Seiberlich, a talented machinist and tuner in his own right, the caliber of his work receiving Eraldo Ferracci's highest praise. "There is no reason to remove copious amounts of material. It is more of a smoothing, or polishing."
Moving down, a set of high-domed pistons, each 28 grams lighter than the factory slugs, drop into the stock 92mm bore. Raising compression from 9.5:1 to 11:1, these forged parts are supplied with rings and lighter/stronger wrist pins. Beautiful pieces they are, too, wrought after extensive research by Eraldo so they would be lighter and require no re-balancing of the crankshaft assembly. Intake chores are handled by FBF's air box conversation kit, which places a high performance filter in the now topless airbox. Aiding in the removal of spent gasses is a pair of throaty Fast By Ferracci carbon wrapped slip-ons, and squeezed between them and the stock headers is a prototype H-pipe crossover. "The production version will be lighter yet, and a great deal prettier," says Seiberlich, but I think the welded-up blue stainless looks cool. All said, the exhaust alone shaves nearly 15 pounds off the Sport's weight.

The heart of the Fast By Ferracci/M-E V11 Sport is the Power Commander III. This electronic box for adjusting mixture fits in the ECU loop, between the stock wiring harness and the Sports computer, allowing adjustment for optimum mixture in low, mid, and high rpm operation. In addition, a CD is provided along with a cable to connect the unit up to your personal PC. If you don't have a computer, adjustments can be made via buttons on the faceplate of the unit. In this case, Eraldo has the Sport's Power Commander hooked to FBF's Dynojet system, located in his pressurized Dyno room where he is preparing the Sport for its mapping session. "With these modifications, reliability and longevity are not impaired. In fact, both likely to be improved upon given the increased balance of the engine and the spot-on fuel/air mixture. You can run this engine for many, many miles and avoid excessive buildup due to an overly rich mixture, while avoiding the heat of running too lean. More compression combined with the modifications to the intake and exhaust means more power. The key to making it all work correctly is the mapping." Eraldo can spend up to an entire day mapping a motorcycle, adjusting mixture for the entire rpm range, gear combination and barometric conditions. From bone stock engines, slightly modded, or full race tunings.

Our session was more of a demonstration but still lasted over two hours. Eraldo ran the Sport bone stock upon arrival and netted a best figure of 77 rear-wheel horsepower, but with the FBF mods in place improved that figure by a whopping 18 HP to 95. And it isn't even run in yet! "I can gain another 7 or 8 HP by fitting separate filters to the throttle bodies," Eraldo reveals, "We're working on that as we speak."
When testing a new V11 Sport for Moto-Euro nearly two years ago, ("90 Degrees and Rising" M-E Summer '01) we compared the bike back-to-back against a 1978 Le Mans 850 and came away impressed. The newer bike with its bigger, square-fin 1100 lump pumped out over 20 more horsepower and hooked to a slick shifting six speed transmission easily won that comparison. Equally honest parallel evaluations with more modern Euro twins, a 996 Ducati or Aprilia's RSVR for example, quickly revealed the Sport as a softer version of the genre. Moto Guzzi twins respond well to cylinder head, intake (read: more fuel) and exhaust modifications, generally shipped from the factory lean, green, and not especially mean. This has improved dramatically since switching to fuel injection six years ago, but with each week seemingly ushering in improved technology this, too, can be improved upon. "The stock mixture readings," says Eraldo, pointing to the nearly horizontal graph now shown on the computer screen, "were all over the place."

Frosty cold or warm, the Sport easily fires with a twist of the fast idle lever and a jab of its starter button. Right away you can tell the bike has grown a whole new personality, and not just from its booming, soulful exhaust note. Throttle response is instant, so quick the bike almost threatens to jump out from under you. The cold seeps right through my leathers without delay and the V11's ability to gain forward momentum in a rapid fashion doesn't help. The FBF mods cause the engine to behave like a good street engine should with smooth, linear power that builds with a fury.

Now the transmission ratios make even more sense as the Sport happily deals with stop and go traffic as easily as it does full throttle romps. The power is always there, but with no shuddering or bogging in high gear or breathlessness winding out in low. It's pretty simple, the longer you stay on the throttle, the more power the engine makes. Copious torque makes short-shifting a breeze, while banzai runs into the upper rpm ranges – at least in the lower gears – causes the Sport's front wheel to lighten. Not only is the bike much faster and more agreeable, it's also considerably smoother with far less buzzing in the tank, footpegs and grips. Oh yes, that pesky high speed weave? FBF's considerable experience with the suspension components found on our Sport found a workable solution by backing the pre-load way off the rear shock. Better, but we've still got a bit of work to do here.
After the test ride and when all the bikes and tools had been put away, we had the chance to sit with Eraldo and members of his crew to discuss the current state of motorcycling and performance tuning. When I expressed my enthusiasm regarding the Sport's road manners, Eraldo lingered to elaborate. "The Guzzi twin is a good engine. Tough, and fairly easy to manage. The figures we're getting may not seem like a great deal these days but it feels good, it feels like more. If a customer asked us for 140 horsepower? No problem. But, I'm not sure if he would be totally happy in the long run. Moto Guzzi owners like to travel, tour, put lots of miles on and this is a good engine for that. We're now getting 100 rear wheel horsepower from the Moto Guzzi 2-valve, while remaining as, or more reliable, than a stock engine." Eraldo pauses to look out the window of his office to where the Sport is parked. "That," he announces before we leave for dinner, "is a very nice Moto Guzzi now."

OK, you can plainly tell Moto-Euro is delighted with the Fast By Ferracci performance kit for Moto Guzzi, and while it is true that several members of the staff (the author not withstanding) are die-hard Guzziphiles, you might be thinking "So what?" Certainly, there are numerous facilities in the industry that perform excellent work in speed-tuning the Guzzi twin. Fair enough, but let's say you've had your eye on one of those beautiful solid red or black Le Mans models, or maybe a carbon adorned V11 Scura and getting one putting 100 HP on the ground would put the deal over the top. Contact Ferracci, pick the Moto Guzzi you want and have Eraldo and his crew fit the performance kit described in this article. Not only will you ride away on a very special motorcycle, it'll come with the full factory warranty to boot! They can breathe extra ponies into your new or used EV or Stone as well. In fact, we banged one of Ferracci's hotted up Cali's during our V11 Sport test ride and came away similarly impressed. Have we gotten your attention yet? The point is this: there are Moto Guzzis and there are FBF Moto Guzzis, and the differences are unmistakable. What? You expected less from Eraldo Ferracci?
And really, when it all boils down, that is what makes the whole deal special. Downloadable maps and ease of installation are genuine pluses for this performance kit, but I admit the personal "laying on of hands" by Eraldo makes our FBF/Guzzi special all that much more appealing. We're talking about one of the great tuners of our generation, with or without four Superbike Championships.

More impressive is the multitude of inventions and personal accomplishments Eraldo has authenticated in his life. The motivation behind them is something that causes, for me, a much deeper respect and admiration than that given for trophies, banners and awards.
After Benelli dried up, Eraldo and his family were left in a strange country with only their wits to support them. "Building fast bikes is what I do, what I know. I had a family to support and kids to feed. I built bikes and raced them so people could see the difference, and they did. It's always been about that. People say their this and that, but I've always believed you have to get them out there side-by-side and see what happens. Separate the fact from fiction. We have been successful because we know what we're doing. It's a matter of record." Another fact is every part, every plan, and every finished project completed at Fast By Ferracci passes before Eraldo before it is delivered to the customer. "Everything comes from here," Ferracci explains, his hands over his heart. "We take this personally. A portion of us goes into every bike." The hard parts, the finely crafted pistons and assemblies for which Ferracci is so well known, you'll have to pay for. By the same token, the time invested in preparing your motorcycle for years of road use or racetrack success will not come freely. The experience, however, over 50 years of mixing of old fashioned values with high technology and the passion to strive for even better, is included at no extra cost. You'll soon discover those are the most valuable of all.