Page 2 Interview with Fantic boss Dr Mario Agrati
Interview with Fantic boss Mario Agrati www.retrotrials.com
The company was started with a shed the size of 1,200 square meters. in 1970, reaching in 1982 to have 20,000 square meters. following a gradual expansion, having the top thirty employees and reaching a maximum with one hundred and sixty.
The technical department consisted of a manager and two engineers, one for the telaistica, one for the engine, and a dozen of designers and technical staff, including two people who dedicated themselves to the regulations that were then beginning to be quite strict level of noise and approvals.
Going back to the Caballero, surely it must be emphasized that this was the most important means of production Fantic, the real workhorse, the status symbol of the then fourteen. The Caballero name derives simply from an intuition of the time. In fact, in those days it was fashionable a famous advertising linked to a brand of coffee, with that guy sitting with a sombrero on his head. One thing leads to, he liked the idea, and so in an unusual way was born the name Caballero.
interview project 01 Not without problems, however, in fact the name Caballero in the Netherlands was a well-known brand of cigarettes, and for this reason in that country had not been able to use, replacing it with the name Carrera. At that time another bike came Fantic characteristic of the production, the Chopper. The idea for the production of this model also came for frequent visits to the United States, where many young men were traveling with this type of bike also influenced by the popular film Easy Rider who was a cult at that time. Those bikes were built by hand, however, a sort of DIY, in fact there were industries that were dedicated to that type of production.
The technical department consisted of a manager and two engineers, one for the telaistica, one for the engine, and a dozen of designers and technical staff, including two people who dedicated themselves to the regulations that were then beginning to be quite strict level of noise and approvals.
Going back to the Caballero, surely it must be emphasized that this was the most important means of production Fantic, the real workhorse, the status symbol of the then fourteen. The Caballero name derives simply from an intuition of the time. In fact, in those days it was fashionable a famous advertising linked to a brand of coffee, with that guy sitting with a sombrero on his head. One thing leads to, he liked the idea, and so in an unusual way was born the name Caballero.
interview project 01 Not without problems, however, in fact the name Caballero in the Netherlands was a well-known brand of cigarettes, and for this reason in that country had not been able to use, replacing it with the name Carrera. At that time another bike came Fantic characteristic of the production, the Chopper. The idea for the production of this model also came for frequent visits to the United States, where many young men were traveling with this type of bike also influenced by the popular film Easy Rider who was a cult at that time. Those bikes were built by hand, however, a sort of DIY, in fact there were industries that were dedicated to that type of production.
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He came up with the idea to make these means, and we left with the equipment of luck, planning to build about five hundred that had to be as a flagship for the company, instead we built about 10,000 having to increase the displacement also bringing it up to 125 cc. For Grim though these bikes were a lot of scene were difficult to drive, and even a little dangerous.
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Interview with Fantic boss Mario Agrati www.retrotrials.com
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Interview with Fantic boss Mario Agrati www.retrotrials.com
The Fantic Motor had always worked in collaboration with Motori Minarelli interview project 03 , Which had all the interest to follow especially in the provision and development of multi engine running. For Minarelli becoming more and more important the production of mono gear motors. Was the early 80s and the general interest for Regularity, who at that time was called Enduro began to wane, so there was the need to turn in other directions, of which the most important was the Trial.
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Motori Minarelli did not feel like tackling a commitment to the construction of engines for the trial, in a relatively small number for the size of their company. The first trial products from us, starting from 1978, 1979 were equipped with the Minarelli modified by us in exchange rates and in the heat, and so on horseback between 1981 and 1982, we started our production of engines, proving to the world that there was no need to do Trial to force interview 01 departments have the means of more than 300 cc, as usual in those times, for example in the Spanish production. Later, other Italian motorcycle manufacturers followed our path. Of course to be competitive in races and win the world championship trials we then had to climb a little 'displacement. The first appearance in the World Trial was in 1982 with the French Gilles Burgat riding a Trial 240, the year before he won the world championship. Then began the lucky was that Michaud gave several world titles. Even the regularity yielded substantial results in the competitions, the race team was under the direction of Julius Maffessoli and was 3.4 people, which entailed a riguardevole economic expenditure for those times.
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Interview with Fantic boss Mario Agrati www.retrotrials.com
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Interview with Fantic boss Mario Agrati www.retrotrials.com
Fortunately at that time that kind of competitions were well attended and the height of popularity, and it was pretty easy to find suitable sponsors so as to amortize the costs, and not least the economic pretensions were certainly not comparable to those of today. With Maffessoli, the racing was Gianni Guanziroli, and the pilot Signorelli who was a mechanic during the week and on weekends he ran. The sports director was un'esterno or Mr. Lino Cornago who was in charge of managing travel, drivers' salaries and logistics in general, was then the organizational mind, while from the point of view of technical management was precisely Maffessoli.
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These words exchanged with dr. Agrati, of course, does not represent the entire history of Fantic in detail, however, which will be discussed in the fields of the competition, let alone the downturn that we are sure the true fans do not care. You have not even talked about all the key people in this company who have devoted body and soul and that will be mentioned in other chapters. I am sure, however, that all fans will appreciate the fact that after all these years and the vicissitudes of the past it was possible to reconstruct the history of this great motorcycle with sympathy and pride, and I assure you that even by Dr. Agrati Fantic Motor is still in his heart.
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Interview with Fantic boss Mario Agrati www.retrotrials.com
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Thank you to Ruggero Carbonera of fanticlegend.it for kind permission.