MV’s 2021 Dragster 800 Is Looking Mighty Fine

Dragster 800

MV’s 2021 Dragster 800 Is Looking Mighty Fine

When MV Agusta first revealed the Dragster range a few years ago, what was initially perceived as an attempt to rob sales from Ducati’s Diavel quickly proved to be pretty damn special itself…

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Big, huge rear tyres may look cool. Scratch that, they definitely look cool, but for chassis designers they are also somewhat of a headache. Good thing, then, that MV Agusta knows their onions when it comes to frames and all the bits that hang off either end of them.

The Dragster 800 has always handled extremely well for a machine with such contrasting sizes of tyres. Wait, we hear you say, don’t many superbikes now have 120/200 front and back combinations? Yes they do, but they are superbikes, it’s a different story when it comes to middleweight naked machines or the cruiser type steed. In short, it’s much harder to develop them to feel as ‘normal’ as possible for the road. But MV managed it with aplomb.

Much like it’s close to the bone Brutale siblings, the 2021 Dragsters come in three main variants – the Rosso, RR and the RR SCS. But there’s also the RR SCS RC, which if we’re all being truly honest with each other is the one we’d all really want, although as there will only ever be 200 of them, maybe we can just dream about one instead.

Sharing the same engine and electronics upgrades as the Brutale, which you can read more about on our MV Agusta Brutale 800 article, the Dragster models are differentiated in ways obvious and otherwise. The RR and RR SCS roll on superbly special spoked wheels that absolutely look the part. The Rosso gets some smart alloy hoops while the RC gets proper lightweight forged badboys.

The Rosso makes a claimed 112bhp at the crankshaft, the RR and RR SCS gives you a seriously bumped up 140bhp, while the RC trumps the lot with a potential 150bhp via the optional race kit. Torque figures are about the same across the board, as are dry weight measurements, too. They also all share the same electronics suite and any would look the absolute nuts when parked up in your garage. In case you didn’t check out that link to the other story, the ‘SCS’ version basically means never (or very rarely) having to ever use the clutch, scooter stylee, though one must still change gears all by your lonesome.

In real world terms, if you had the Rosso, the truth is you may not miss the extra horsepower those others offer, at all. Losing a measly 3Nm of torque on them means it basically has the same thrust curve, which for road riding is perfect. Yes, we like our bling and enjoy having the most we can get for our money, but the Rosso is the smart choice here for the discerning buyer. If any of the others are within your financial reach, then go for it, obviously, but despite not having an extra string of letters and numbers attached to the end of its name, the Rosso would still delight rather more than disappoint.

You pays your money, you makes your choice – but which Dragster would you choose?

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