The Prototypes

The Two Magni-Guzzi Prototypes

Note: Prototype #1 and Prototype #2 are referred to as P1 and P2 respectively for convenience.

Written by Matt Compton
26th May 2020

The Two Prototypes

From one of the most isolated capital cities on earth, comes the amazing account of two of the rarest motorcycles in the world; the dual-prototype Magni-Guzzis of Tadeusz ‘Ted’ Stolarski. Ted’s unique bikes contain prototype versions of Moto Guzzi’s 4V 992cc engine that would go on to power Moto Guzzi’s first superbike of the modern era; the spectacular Daytona 1000. Incredibly, not only are both of Ted’s engines prototypes they are also housed in prototype frames. Both frames are the earliest versions of Arturo and Giovanni Magni’s twin-shock frame that was in the planning stage to become Magni’s first Guzzi 4V powered superbike; the highly desirable Magni Australia. 

Ted Stolarski

Ted, highly passionate about motorcycle racing, was a long time Moto Guzzi importer based in Perth, Western Australia. He had a gregarious and quirky personality along with an enthusiastic and positive approach to life. These qualities endeared him to the many souls he crossed paths with including both the Moto Guzzi staff and the Magni family.

Prototype #1 Origin

Dr John Wittner & Umberto Todero

American dentist turned famed Moto Guzzi Engineer is probably a good starting point for the storyline of these magnificent two prototypes. Dr John forsook a thriving dental practice to fully engage in his passion for racing. He employed his phenomenal engineering skills to create a highly modified Moto Guzzi Le Mans which he raced very successfully.

Moto Guzzi had fallen behind their contemporaries and saw in Dr John an opportunity to raise the competitiveness of their mighty machines from Mandello. Thus he was enlisted to lead the development of their transition from 2-valve to 4-valve engines alongside Guzzi’s brilliant engineer Umberto Todero.

Umberto had actually designed the 4V-OHC engine in 1985, and together they would develop it further whilst testing it under the rigours of the track environment. This engine would go on to power Moto Guzzi’s first superbike of the modern era, the Daytona 1000. 

Ted's First Prototype Engine

In the year 1989 Ted was ambitiously pursuing a racebike of his own thus he approached the Moto Guzzi factory. This was the time Dr John and Umberto were developing the 4-valve prototype engines. Ted relayed, “There were only four engines in the world. Dr John [Wittner] got one, the French distributor got one, and I got one” (It’s a Guzzi Right?, Streetbike). So, with Ted being Ted, the factory gifted him one of these unique and very limited hand built prototype engines right out of the developmental lab.

P1 Engine & Transmission

Prototype #1 bears the engine number KA000111. The 4V 992cc V-twin prototype engine was prominently marked with “OHC 4V” on the cylinder head valve covers to indicate the overhead camshaft 4-valve per cylinder design. Although, with Guzzi’s particular design the cams are carried high in the cylinder heads, not on top, and they utilise short pushrods to activate the valves; with cam belts to drive the hi-cam design.

These engines largely adopt the Le Mans 1000 bottom end, “but with extra meat welded in after casting but before heat treatment to allow a wider spread of cylinder studs for the spacial requirements of the four-valve heads” (Alan Cathcart, Dr John Rides Again, AMCN). All the factory prototype engines were designed with a fairly moderate state of tune as during development the focus was more on reliability over performance. 

The transmission was standard Le Mans 1000; from the clutch to the gearbox and the final drive components. Early in its life Ted modified the gearbox by grinding off the intermediate engaging dogs on the 1-2 and the 2-3 shift; in effect creating a smooth shift action and greatly reducing the possibility of false neutrals.

Ted’s First Prototype Frame

Ted had now acquired his first engine and transmission but Moto Guzzi didn’t have a frame available at the time. Continuing the quest to complete his racebike Ted then approached Arturo and Giovanni for a frame to house his engine. In Giovanni’s own words he recounts, "Ted visited our stand at the IFMA Köln [Germany] in 1989. He wanted to build a new motorcycle for races in Australia and USA, and asked us to build the chassis for him. He obtained from Moto Guzzi one of the first prototypes of the 4-valve engine and we built the motorcycle around it” (Giovanni Magni, Email, 4 Feb 2014).

The Magnis were keen to work with Ted, as Arturo and Giovanni wanted to get underway with working on their upcoming Magni superbike, but the engines were not yet available from the Moto Guzzi factory. Therefore, Arturo was more than happy to have the loan of Ted’s engine so he could set up their jigs and begin designing around Guzzi’s new OHC-4V power plant. 

Magni were planning their upcoming superbike around a modernisation of their Sfida frame. One of the more significant planned changes was the modification to their patented “Parallelogrammo” swingarm system. This was to enable the fitment of a modern, and wide for the time, 5.5 inch rear wheel. Out of gratitude to Ted for the loan of the engine Arturo actually gifted Ted their first prototype frame. 

According to Giovanni most of the documents and photos from the time are lost but from his memory the initial prototype Magni Australia frame provided to Ted was TIG welded 25CrMo4 Steel, with the swingarm based on their Parallelogrammo system (Giovanni Magni, Email, 18 Feb 2014).

P1 Other Components

Along with the frame, Magni also provided several other components:

• 40mm Dell’Orto carburettors.

• The front forks were Forcella Italia.

• The rear twin-shock setup was initially by Koni. 

• The front discs were full-floating 280mm rotors with Brembo Goldline Racing 4 spot callipers. 

• Brembo 05 calliper with 260mm fixed Goldline rotor

• Lightweight 3-spoke Marvic wheels 3.5” x 17” front, 5.5” x 17” rear. Lightweight EPM magnesium wheels 

• Magni designed 2-1-2 exhaust with Stucchi mufflers.

• Rechargeable Scitsu racing tacho.

• Unique fully enclosed bodywork that according to Giovanni was “Especially realised for Ted” (Giovanni Magni, Email, 18 Feb 2014). This bodywork includes a one piece cover that fits over an enclosed aluminium fuel tank and is styled similarly to the Magni Lemans 1000, but with subtle differences. 

Prototype #1 History

P1 Arrival 1990

In anticipation of his first prototype arriving, Ted had flown famed Guzzi tuner Amedeo Castellani out from the UK to help set up and tune his new racebike. The prototype arrived fully assembled directly from Magni with its distinctive green and gold livery. Ted’s desire for his own racebike was manifest! Unfortunately the shipment of the bike was delayed and it arrived four weeks late. The team only had time to unpack the bike, do a few laps of Wanneroo Raceway, then immediately crate it up again to ship it off to compete in the 1990 Daytona Pro-Twins event.

P1 Debut 1990

Ted and his team took off to Florida for P1’s debut at Daytona. There they chanced upon Russell Aylward, a Western Australian racer who also happened to be in Daytona competing in the Superbike class. Russell generously lent his assistance over the two weekends of racing at Daytona. During their time in the US, Ted’s team liaised with Rennsport and received an upgraded exhaust system; they also liaised with WP Racing for uprated rear shocks.

Ted recruited Owen Coles to be P1’s very first rider. Owen was running 7th at the Daytona Pro-Twins event but unfortunately crashed P1 due to an error in tire fitment and tire pressure, and subsequently placed 12th. Following Daytona, Owen won 1st place at the Palm Beach Twins event against some very competitive teams which included the Dr John racebike, piloted by Doug Brauneck. He also picked up a 3rd at Roebling Road Raceway in Savanna, Georgia.

Aussie & Kiwi Racing 1991

Upon their return from America, Owen went back to work for Brook Henry as the manager of Webrook Ducati and the development rider for Brook’s Vee Two Alchemy project; thus Ted was in need of another rider. Ted knew the famous GP racer Keith Turner as Keith was a Guzzi dealer in New Zealand (NZ). Keith’s nephew Simon Turner was also an accomplished racer. Ted therefore found his new rider for P1 and brought Simon over to Western Australia (WA) from NZ. Simon raced P1 at Wanneroo Raceway and also at some Round-the-Houses events in WA before heading over to NZ with Ted to take part in a number of events with impressive results.

Developments & Modifications 1990 - 1994

During Ted’s time campaigning P1, valuable experience was gleaned from the rigours of the racetrack crucible, which Ted and his team shared in person at both the Moto Guzzi and Magni factories. These hard won lessons led to significant developments and modifications to not only P1 but also to the upcoming Moto Guzzi Daytona and Magni Australia production bikes. 

At Moto Guzzi the team gave valuable feedback about the performance of the engine and transmission under competitive track use. At the Magni factory Ted and his team enjoyed a constructive collaboration, where many of their ideas were incorporated into the next evolution of the Magni Australia frame. Thus Magni created a lighter version with a sharper steering head angle, reduced trail, a shorter wheelbase plus improved suspension and brakes. Also incorporated in all Parallelogram Magni-Guzzis released from that time on, was Simon Turner’s “trackside invention”. This was a plate Simon designed to go with the bevel drive and rear wheel setup to prevent the wheel pulling away from the drive unit under heavy acceleration whilst exiting corners.

Just prior to Ted’s passing, Prototype #1 was being campaigned by A1 Motorcycle’s John Buskus and Steve Brouggy. They had transformed its colour scheme to all red including the wheels.

An Engineer for P1 - 1994

Towards the end of P1’s time with A1 motorcycles Ted had decided that it should go to an engineer for maintenance and further development. Who better than his good friend, and engineering genius, Barry Jones of Italian Motorcycle Engineering. Thus, in 1994, Prototype #1 was delivered into Barry’s care.

Prototype #2 - Origin

Ted’s Second Prototype Frame and Engine

The Moto Guzzi factory and the Magni’s were very happy with Ted’s racing results and were appreciative of the feedback from Ted and his team. With Ted now looking for ways to further improve his results, he intended to purchase the newer, uprated Magni frame and higher specced suspension and braking components for his Prototype #1 Magni-Guzzi racer. However to Ted’s surprise and delight, the Moto Guzzi factory gave him another of their pre-production 4V Daytona prototype engines and Magni gifted Ted the uprated frame with all the improvements he’d hoped for. Thus instead of upgrading his first prototype Magni-Guzzi racebike, Ted now had a second complete bike, Prototype #2.

P2 Engine & Transmission

Prototype #2 has engine number KA000112 indicating it was the very next engine out of the developmental lab following P1’s engine number KA000111. P2 came with the same hand-welded prototype 992cc OHC-4V engine as P1. The only difference being that P2 was provided with a highly polished Scola crank. 

Ted modified the gearbox by grinding off the intermediate engaging dogs in all the gears. This lightened the gears and greatly improved the feel of the gearshift, eliminating false neutrals and creating an incredibly smooth shift action. Amedeo Castellani did this same modification with his Raceco UK bikes and also offered it to his customers as a “Slick-Shift Conversion”.

P2 Frame & Improvements

Prototype #2’s frame is an uprated version of P1’s frame and to the same specification of Arturo and Giovanni’s own twin-shock Magni Australia prototype racebike. It came with a steering head angle of 28 degrees, trail of 120mm and wheelbase of 1446mm. The frame was fabricated from 25CrMo4 steel and TIG welded. 

P2 Other Components

In addition to the new frame, Magni provided the following components with P2:

• Contrary to reports that P2 was fuel injected, it was supplied with the same 40mm Dell’Orto carbs as P1, which are still fitted to this day. 

• Brakes were uprated on P2 with Brembo 320mm full-floating front rotors. gripped by Brembo Goldline Racing 4 spot callipers.

• Brembo Goldline 05 calliper fitted to the rear with Brembo 260mm floating rotor.

• Lightweight 3-spoke Marvic wheels 3.5” x 17” front, 5.5” x 17” rear.

• Rounding this out was a Scitsu racing tacho.

• Magni’s beautifully designed and hand-sculpted alloy tank.

• Magni provided fully faired Sfida-style bodywork for P2 rather than the Magni Australia bodywork as they had not yet unveiled their upcoming Magni Australia.

Following impressive results with P1:

• WP Racing contributed their latest upside down front forks and rear shocks. 

• Rennsport offered the use of their latest mufflers.

The suspension provided to Ted for P2 from WP Racing was factory spec equipment which was used by a number of teams in that season’s World Super Bike Championship.

P2’s Arrival & Assembly in 1991

Prototype #2 began its life in Perth, Western Australia, delivered in about ten boxes to Ted’s workshop from Magni and Moto Guzzi. It was here that Russell Aylward was again involved and volunteered his time to put P2 together. The Green and Gold “Aussie” team livery was deployed, and due to Russell’s time and effort assembling P2, Ted saw fit that he should be the first rider.

Prototype #2 - History

1991 - 1992

P2 debuted in 1991 with Sfida style bodywork at Wanneroo Raceway ridden by Russell Aylward who successfully campaigned in the Western Australian Thunderbike series. Russell raced P2 in WA, SA, QLD and NSW; at one point in 1992 leading championships in WA, SA and QLD simultaneously.

1993

During the 1993 season, Ted decided to put Mark Purdy on P2 for that year’s Bathurst event. Unfortunately Mark crashed into the air fence, badly injuring himself. The bike had only cosmetic damage and was patched up and ridden by Russell, where he finished second in class to the Brittens.

Upon returning to WA Mark spent some time doing repairs to P2 and part of those repairs was to replace the damaged tail unit with a mould taken from P1’s top fairing piece. Thus P2 for a while had the full Sfida style front fairing with the tail unit from P1 attached. Following this, Ted decided to make it look more like a Daytona, as this was the bike they were marketing at the time, so the P1 style tail unit was eschewed in favour of a Daytona 1000 rear end.

1993 - 1994

The red Sfida/Daytona style was P2’s look when Ted loaned it to us at Webrook Motorcycles. Chris Cooke, our rider for the 1994 season, preferred the look without the belly pan and ended up removing it.

1994

While Chris was competing in the 1994 Thunderbike season I was earning my race licence, and spent many days with P2 out at Wanneroo raceway during midweek private practice. A lot of my time was spent with Ted over these last two years and his friendship and advice are a treasured memory.

Magni Australia & Daytona

Magni’s Own Prototype Racebike

Many of the suggested improvements from Ted and his team that went into the frame, suspension and brakes of P2 were also incorporated into Magni’s own test-bed Magni Australia twin-shock racebike. Magni produced their own racebike with all these improvements and with the same twin-shock rear setup as on both Ted’s bikes. Their racer was powered by a fuel injected production version of the Daytona 4V engine.

Magni Australia - Production Bike Unveiled

Arturo and Giovanni unveiled their first production Magni Australia in late 1991 at the Milan EICMA show. Ted himself was in attendance at this event and it was here that Arturo officially revealed the ‘Australia’ label. This label was given in honour of Ted, his two Magni ‘Australia’ racebikes and his contributions towards the development of their new Superbike. The Magni Australia was extremely well received and led to many worldwide sales enquiries.

The production Magni Australia utilised the standard 1000cc OHC-4V engine, fuel injection and airbox directly from the Daytona. However, the production Magni Australia featured a divergence from the frames found on Ted’s two prototypes and Magni’s own prototype ‘Australia’ racebike; shifting from a twin-shock rear end to a mono-shock system. 

Many Magni enthusiasts and Guzzisti are surprised to learn that the plans for the initial Magni Australia were actually as a twin shock design; as they have only ever seen the production model with it’s mono-shock rear end. The twin-shock rear was indeed favoured by Arturo over the production mono-shock rear end. Arturo explains his preference, “Actually, the only reason we have a single rear shock on the bike is because of fashion — two would be better, because you get a stiffer overall rear end structure” (Magni Force, AMCN, 1993).

Daytona

In 1992 Moto Guzzi released their long awaited 1000cc 4-valve per cylinder Daytona sports bike; which was the culmination of the combined efforts, most notably, of the exceptional engineering genius of Umberto Todero with the passionate development lead of Dr John Wittner.  The Daytona contained the production version of the very OHC-4V prototype engines found in Ted’s two prototype Magni-Guzzi racebikes.

Magni Australia - Production Bike Released

Unfortunately due to a hold up in supply of the new “otto-valvole” engine from Moto Guzzi, Arturo and Giovanni were not able to offer their production Magni Australia superbike to buyers until 1993. This was due to Moto Guzzi wanting to prioritise the initial batch of engines for their recently unveiled, and very popular, Daytona sports bike. 

Magni Australia - Series 1

The Magni Australia released in 1993 is commonly referred to as the Series 1. This model was produced with the tubular Sfida-style frame but with the aforementioned shift to the mono-shock rear. The Series 1’s were made from 25CrMo4 Steel, hand TIG welded and approximately 75 were produced. It was powered by the standard Daytona 1000 engine and fuel injection system. 

Magni Australia 98 - Series 2

In 1998 the Magni Australia was rereleased as the Australia 98, also known as the Series 2. Its frame was a box-section beam-style frame that was similar in design to the Daytona 1000. This time around the Australia was powered by the RS version of the Moto Guzzi Daytona engine.  Still with the standard fuel injection and airbox as the Daytona RS. Once again the frame was produced from 25CrMo4 Steel, hand TIG welded. Approximately 50 of the Series 2 models were produced.

Ted Passing

From 1990 to 1994 Ted was passionately involved in racing his two prototype Magni-Guzzis in the USA, Australia and NZ and by some reports Japan. In late 1994 we closed Webrook Motorcycles and took over Ted’s retail Moto Guzzi distribution for WA; moved into his premises and renamed it Pro-Italia. Sadly, in September 1994, during the planning and transition phase Ted passed away from lead toxicity. Ted was irreplaceable and his presence was sorely missed in the Australian motorcycling community.

P1 History After Ted

1994

Dulcie, Ted’s wife, sold Prototype #1 to Barry Jones of Italian Motorcycle Engineering in November 1994. 

April 1995

Soon after Barry purchased P1 from Dulcie, he repainted the wheels to the original yellow. The steering head angle was reduced and he replaced the parallelogram with an alloy swingarm of his own design.

October 1996

Barry fitted a close-ratio gearbox.

January 1997

Larger valves were fitted with performance IME designed cams and a lightweight aluminium flywheel.

Barry and his team had great results at WSBK BEARS support race with a close 3rd behind the Britten and the Ducati Dealer Team.

1998 - mid 2000’s

P1 was raced at club level.

Late 2000’s - 2015

The bike has been displayed and ridden once a year at the Broadford Bike Bonanza, and occasionally at the Phillip Island Classic.

2016 - Current

P1’s engine was rebuilt and Barry embarked on a project to return it to its original green and gold livery.

P1 Riders

P1 Specs

P2 History After Ted

1995

A Daytona front fairing was now fitted to P2 to further promote Daytona sales in WA, the only remaining Magni bodywork item now being their beautiful hand-sculpted alloy tank.

 Midway through the season in June 1995, Dulcie Stolarski approached me with an offer to purchase P2, which I gladly accepted. 

1996 - 1999

Due to a non-racing injury and also entering full-time studies P2 wasn’t campaigned between 1996 and 1999.

1999

In 1999 a plan was made for Russell Aylward to campaign Prototype #2 in BOTT events around America for the following year. Thus, P2’s bodywork evolved again; a new 2-1-2 “Roo Racing” exhaust system with carbon fibre mufflers was crafted and a lightweight, yet strong, carbon fibre/fibreglass composite bodywork was fitted. P2 was also entered in several WA Thunderbike events prior to shipping out.

2000 - 2001

In 2000 Russell Aylward raced P2 in multiple USA BOTT events including Daytona bike week and DeLand Airport Raceway where he placed 2nd.

In 2001 Prototype #2 returned to Perth from America, and has not been raced since this time. 

2001 - 2020

P2 has been on proud display in the showroom at Mario Poggioli’s Thunderbikes, Perth’s premier Guzzi dealer, since 2001.

2020

In march of 2020, P2 was crated up and sent 3,500km to Victoria to be with its sibling P1. In Barry Jones’ expert hands it was carefully pulled down and checked over and P2 now has a new lease on life. Have a listen to the video to hear the first time P2 was fired up after sitting for 20 years !

P2 Riders

P2 Specs

Epilogue

We are indebted to the talents of every passionate and talented individual who made an impact in the creation of these two amazing Magni-Guzzi “Australia” prototypes. 

Ted’s bikes are an incredible slice of Moto Guzzi and Magni history. They are the only two examples of their kind in the world, and it’s so wonderful they are both still in superb condition and being carefully preserved and protected. 

P1 and P2 are bound together by their shared genetics where incredibly both the engines and the frames are prototype developmental models. The rare, hand-built and hand-welded engines of Engineer Umberto Todero and Dr John Wittner, proudly housed in the stunningly designed and hand-crafted frames of Arturo and Giovanni Magni, prototypes for the upcoming Magni Australia. 

Eternal thanks to Ted Stolarski for his passion and soul and boundless capacity for friendship that enabled such positive relationships with the Magni family and the Moto Guzzi staff. I’m sure this went a great way towards him having unprecedented preferential treatment in the receipt of such coveted machinery. 

To Dulcie Stolarski for her warmth and humour, and our many great talks, I’m always grateful to you and the opportunity you gave me to stay connected to this story.

My utmost gratitude for the contributions of Barry Jones, Simon Turner, Owen Coles, Amedeo Castellani, Mark Purdy, Russell Aylward, Chris Cooke, Giovanni Magni, Ben Jones, Vaughan Atherton, Steve Brouggy, Alex MacKenzie, Julian Masters, Murray Barnard, Richard McDowell, Mike Cahill, Steve Robbins, David Goldman and Colin Rosewarne with the collation of this history. This account would not have been possible without each and every one of you.