Motorcycle history is littered with landmark V-configuration engines, plus some astounding alternatives packing from two to eight cylinders. Here are some of our favourites...

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Visionary engineer behind the biggest bikes Triumph and Norton ever produced

Zinging sports bike power, a trail bike chassis and rally-raid styling. Is Yamaha’s two-stroke a curious oddity, or way more than the sum of its disparate parts?

Moto Guzzi weren’t the only ones to make a V8. Finnish genius Tauno Nurmi built his own eight-cylinder for the 350cc world championship in 1965 – and the amazing device has been brought back to life

The return of Ford’s famed Blue Oval to Formula 1 may be denigrated by some rivals as a badging exercise, but the US giant generated a tremendous legacy of 176 grand prix victories by lending its name