As is so often the case in the motorcycle industry, Aprilia has been among the firms getting retro nostalgic of late with the decision to launch a new Tuareg adventure bike developed around the 660 platform - but could it set its sights a little higher with a new V4-engined Caponord?
That’s the thinking behind this very convincing concept design study from Italian Lorenzo Coppo - find and follow him on Instagram HERE - and while there is no affiliation with Aprilia itself, it could do worse than pore over his wares for some inspiration.
Aprilia hasn’t offered the Caponord - its road-biased adventure sports tourer - for some years, seemingly giving into the fight presented by its top selling main rival, the Ducati Multistrada.
However, with Ducati going on to give its Multistrada a new lease of life with the inclusion of industry-first tech and tweaked version of its Panigale-sourced V4 engine, attention has returned to Aprilia to see whether it could go toe-to-toe with its own V-configured four pot.
Of course, unlike Ducati, Aprilia are relative old hands at the V4 game having developed the rev-hungry unit for use to devastating effect back in 2009 for the RSV 4 and later the Tuono V4.
As such, the current engine - even in updated 1100cc guise - is ageing by comparison, but any fresh version could well serve a purpose in a new Aprilia Caponord V4.
At the very least this is an attractive vision, combining the newly adopted family look of the latest RSV4 - in turn inspired by the RS 660 - into a more upright tourer silhouette, while we salute the effort into making it look ‘real’ with riders and all.
Playing devil’s advocate for a moment, an Aprilia Caponord V4 would likely take greater inspiration from the Tuono V4, so - very estimate - power figures would be in the range of 170-175bhp, a significant increase on the 120bhp of the ‘predecessor’.
Like we say, this is a fantasy for the time being but there is no denying an Aprilia Caponord V4 would make some sense in the year 2022...
