MV Agusta has officially launched the special-edition MV Agusta Brutale 800 RR America in India. The company has allocated five of the models for the country and as we’d earlier reported, the bike is priced at Rs 18.73 lakh. Interestingly, that means the Brutale 800 RR America edition costs less than the standard Brutale 800 RR, which is priced at Rs 18.99 lakh. In the US, for instance, the 800 RR America costs USD 200 (about Rs 14,000) more than the standard 800 RR. MV Agusta operates in India under the Motoroyale umbrella, and dealers we spoke to earlier revealed to us that the difference in the price tag is because of changes in the dollar rate, when the bikes were imported to our country.

The differences between the standard and America edition are solely visual and cosmetic. The Brutale 800 RR America edition wears a red, white and blue livery and an “America Special Edition” decal also graces the instrument cluster cover, along with the production number of the particular motorcycle.

Mechanically, the 800 RR America remains identical to the standard variant. At the heart of both motorcycles is a 798cc, inline, three-cylinder engine that sits inside a steel-trellis frame and produces 140hp at 12,300rpm and 87Nm at 10,100rpm. The Brutale 800 RR also gets a Marzocchi USD fork and Sachs monoshock.

The America theme on the Brutale 800 RR draws inspiration from the 1975 MV Agusta S America 750 that featured a 75hp, inline, air-cooled, four-cylinder engine with dual-overhead camshafts, which was ahead of its time. More than 25 years later, the ‘America’ name was revived and used on the first-ever Brutale – a four-cylinder motorcycle back then. The very first three-cylinder Brutale 800 America was introduced in 2017, and the special colour scheme was also rolled out on the brands’ other motorcycles like the Dragster 800 RR.

At Rs 18.73 lakh, the Brutale 800 RR costs more than twice as much as similar capacity naked motorcycles like the Kawasaki Z900 (Rs 7.69 lakh), the Triumph Street Triple S (Rs 9.19 lakh) and the Ducati Monster 821 (Rs 9.51 lakh). The premium comes thanks to MV Agusta’s status as an exotic Italian brand.

(All prices ex-showroom, India)