Yamaha celebrates Abarth's Centenary with FZ1 Abarth Assetto Corse

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We’re stunned at the strength of this year’s naked bikes. The Ducati Streetfighter S. The KTM Super Duke R. And now Yamaha unveils it’s latest track-ready concept, the FZ1 Abarth Assetto Corse. At first glance, we think it’s the most elegant of the genre. The bold and simple paint scheme is fantastic, not only adhering to the legendary Abarth Fiat racers, but also very similar to early Yamaha Grand Prix works racers.
And just look at all those super parts! Wait, why does this thing have a Nissin rear caliper and Brembo monobloc front calipers? And isn’t that a Brembo master cylinder attached to the Nissin?

>Whoah! Where’d the red for that seat come from, and why do the brake-line fittings alternate between pink and gold? Is that a maroon-anodized bar we see? Excuse us, what did you say? Ohhhh, it was built by tuners!

Austrian-born Karl Abarth was first a motorcycle racer and builder, but ultimately he gave that up in favor of playing with Fiat’s, which lead him to birthing the “tuner” concept for Fiat privateers. Fiat’s having a huge media celebration to bolster their newly revived Abarth-branded 500, (similar to BMW models getting an M badge), and thought they’d invite Yamaha to participate. Fiat sponsors Yamaha’s MotoGP factory team, plus Rossi and Fiat heir Lapo Elkann are best buddies, so why not?

Maybe we’re just a little frustrated at how close this concept came to greatness, while sadly remaining nothing more than a silly tuner bike. One with all the parts anodized different shades of red and gold, because nobody bothered to care that every component manufacturer uses a different color when anodizing.

Or at least make sure the brake parts match? Yeesh.

via Motoblog via OmniMoto

  • gappy

    Sorry guys, but you really have to spruce up your italian. It’s “AsSetto CorsE”, which means, more or less, “racing stance”.

    • Razzy

      Sod the italian When are Yamaha releasing this baby and how many petrol tokens is it going to cost me?
      I want one what a tool to have fun on its about time Yamaha made a good hooligan tool and this looks like it fits the bill a treat who gives a stuff about the why somone spels another laguage

  • Swagger

    Silly tuner bike? Wow…coming from you guys that’s a real disappointment. Do you really care that the master cylinder is a different brand that the caliper? Or that the bars are an interesting color rather than plain vanilla silver of black?
    This is a very cool bike, looks well executed too.
    So what if the clamps are different shade of red? Different alloys of aluminum take the anodizing dye to a different depth, hence the shade difference.

    I dunno guys, it just really bothers me to read your obvious intent to dismiss this nice looking bike offhand because it’s not some cookie-cutter factory bike. Perhaps your view is too narrow for my tastes, I’d enjoyed your blog until now…..

    • http://hellforleathermagazine.com Grant

      Swagger, my problem is that the bike has loads of potential, is likely fast as can be and at first glance is stunning. This is also a bike built by a company division that promotes itself on quality, performance and the attention to detail fitting of a luxury marque.

      If this was built by some guy in his garage, (totally possible), I wouldn’t care about the small stuff. I’d put up the same gallery and say it was an awesome machine.

      But it’s not by just some guy in his garage. This FZ1 was built as an homage to a Fiat legend, from Fiat’s Abarth division. Who had major financial backing. These miscues lead me to believe the bike was thrown in as a marketing gimmick to spice up the event rather than honor a past racer that personified cool.

      • TheDude

        Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man. The dude likes.

      • biminitwst

        Maybe the parts don’t match on purpose.
        Perhaps they wanted it to look like it was built by a tuner, rather than looking like something mass produced in a huge faceless factory.
        Mee likey lots!

        • http://hellforleathermagazine.com Wes

          Or maybe they just drove it through an aftermarket parts catalog and those are the parts that stuck.

          I think Grant’s point is that Abarth (FIAT) and Yamaha had the potential for a really cool collaboration here and instead they just half-assed it.

  • Travis

    I ride an MV Agusta Brutale and I gotta say… this bike made me think about cheating on her… WOW… That is a gorgeous! Nice job!

  • Shawn

    Wouldn’t it be nice if the motorcycle manufacturer’s had two versions of their naked bikes…… One like they do now, “tuned for the street”, comfy seats, etc…… and One like above, “Tuned for ass-kickin”.

    Oh…. and I’m bummed that anything matches at all. Rattlecan that bitch. :)

  • Remy

    I would cheat on my Duc with that.

  • LADucSP

    aarrgh…how awesome is the FZ1 with the Euro headlight? If they sold that here in the US, I would definitely add it to the garage. That heinous fairing they shill here is aweful. Messes up the weight distr and handling, too.

  • http://www.migpilot.net MO

    Without a doubt, being back in the market next year, this would get my serious attention, probably even more than a Duc, as much as I love them. The looks of an exotic but with the engineering and reliability of a Japanese bike.

    I think I’ve just sold my soul to the devil…. Penance for me now…

  • http://www.migpilot.net MO

    “Maybe we’re just a little frustrated at how close this concept came to greatness, while sadly remaining nothing more than a silly tuner bike. One with all the parts anodized different shades of red and gold, because nobody bothered to care that every component manufacturer uses a different color when anodizing.”

    I gotta say guys, I do indeed visit the site everyday but this comment really had me scratching my head (once I revisited the post). If everything WAS perfect, all the reds the same red, all the parts matching yadda, yadda, THEN the whole idea would have missed the point. The fact that they don’t IS what makes this bike. Just another silly tuner bike? No, a production bike with the turner flavour. The odds and mismatches are what makes it what it is. ANY factory can get everything the same, it’s only the ones with balls and the courage to blow off the marketing stylists and do something odd sods like this that ‘get it’.

    Looking at it again, yes, I’d probably buy this over the cookie cutter Monsters and the like.

  • http://www.darngooddesign TBS Stunta

    I dig it. When I did my cafe racer I specifically used mostly similar (gold) anodized bits with red anodized accents. That FZ is the same way, and I like that they used red anodizing to match the red in the paint.

  • ezranz

    the thing about all the fiat abarths is that they all looked like this… the cars were notorious for looking thrown together… it’s almost like an official brand styling. It looks as if either they have conciously followed this style, or abarth has fallen into the same old style simply due to laziness.