Moto Guzzi Le Mans 850: The Story of Mandello's Sporting Legend

The Le Mans 850 is arguably the most famous sports bike in Moto Guzzi's history: derived directly from the V7 Sport, it combines a visually striking aerodynamic fairing with a V-twin delivering class-leading performance throughout the second half of the 1970s.

The Le Mans name recalls the famous French 24-hour endurance race and comes from a 1972 prototype, the mysterious VB with its fixed half-fairing. Presented at the Milan EICMA show in November 1975 together with the 750 S3 as a road-going base for competition derivatives, the bike was an immediate success, with over 500 orders taken directly at the show: full production therefore began in early 1976, retaining the V7 Sport's Tonti frame but with power deliberately reduced to 71 bhp to ensure greater reliability on the road.

Over the course of a decade the Le Mans was offered in four main series. The first series (1976-1977) uses the 844 cc twin with cast-iron liners and Dell'Orto PHF 36 carburettors. In 1978 came the second series, with a full fairing developed in the wind tunnel in response to the BMW R100 RS. The third series continued the technical evolution in the early 1980s, while the fourth series, unveiled at EICMA in 1984, raised displacement to 949 cc and power to 81 bhp, introducing for the first time a 16-inch front wheel, a solution later abandoned in subsequent series in favour of a return to the more traditional 18-inch.

For the most demanding enthusiasts, Moto Guzzi made available a competition kit made up of larger carburettors, wider manifolds and a camshaft with more aggressive timing, capable of taking the Le Mans close to a top speed of 240 km/h (149 mph), an extraordinary figure for a mid-1970s road-going sports bike.

The Le Mans 850, particularly in its first series, is now considered one of the most iconic and sought-after Italian sports bikes of the whole 1970s and '80s, with an international following of enthusiasts and some of the strongest prices among the classic two-valve Guzzis.