Seventies Superbike: 1977 Laverda Jota

The Laverda Jota sticks in my mind as the ultimate seventies superbike: it’s the two-wheeled equivalent of the iconic Lamborghini Muira. This 1977 Jota is owned by Alex Ozzard-Low, and after digging around, I was surprised to find that the Jota was not a true factory bike. According to Classic Mechanics, “Developed by Roger Slater from the 1000cc 3C triple, the bike had higher compression pistons, beefier cams and less restrictive (read ‘loud’) exhausts, and was tested at MIRA that August by John Nutting, who got a best one-way top speed of 140.04mph and said it had ‘easily the highest...