In about the year 2000, a ghost was floating around the coffee machines in the corridors of the Italian motorcycle manufacturers. “Pssst, have you heard? BMW is doing a MotoGP bike with an engineering company from Modena.”
Nothing much was ever known about this project, and I didn't know any of my colleagues who really ended up going to Modena – so it's high time to shed some light on the mystery and the men 20-plus years later. Oral Engineering was founded in January 1995 by three men in Modena, the CVs of two of the partners representing a piece of Italian motorsport history. Mauro Forghieri, born in 1935, was technical director of the Ferrari racing team for 24 years, winning four drivers' and seven constructors' titles in Formula 1. After Ferrari, he moved on to Bugatti and Lamborghini Engineering. Even today, Forghieri is considered by industry insiders to be one of the most complete and versatile engineers in the history of Formula 1. In 1977, he had hired Franco Antoniazzi, born in 1953, to assemble Formula 1 engines at Ferrari. He gained experience in the twowheel sector with Cagiva's GP 500 project in the Motocross
