MV Agusta F4 and Ayrton Senna - The icon with the spirit of a legend

Few names in sport are as iconic and revered as Ayrton Senna... and few motorcycle marques are as iconic and revered as MV Agusta. Combine them together and you get something really rather special.

This is the MV Agusta F4 Senna and the model pictured here is one of only 300 special edition versions manufactured and scattered around the world for happy MV and F1 fans to collect. 

The great man himself - who died tragically in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix - of course didn’t get to put his personal sign-off on the F4 bearing his legendary moniker, but it’s reasonable to assume he would have given it his stamp of approval had he still been alive.

Instead, the MV Agusta Senna was built in support of the Instituto Ayrton Senna, an NGO named after him that continues to do exceptional charity work across Brazil decades on.

Which brings us to the motorcycle you see right here. This is a pristine model with a barely run-in 3,000 miles on the clock and it has emerged on our favourite specialist auction trade website Bring A Trailer.

This particular model is #234 of the 300 built - of 65 sold in the US - and is a particularly enticing take on the svelte Tamburini-penned lines of the beautiful F4, with Marzocchi forks up front, a Sachs rear monoshock, radially mounted Brembo brakes, Marchesini wheels, carbon fiber fenders and, of course, a special livery emblazoned with the Senna motif.

Under the lithe skin remains the 998cc inline-four with a six-speed gearbox kicking out 183bhp, meaning it would champ at the heels of today’s ultra high-tech sportsbikes.

It is of course not the only sportsbike to come associated with the great man himself - who won five F1 world titles and 41 grands prix - with a Ducati 916 Senna proving a particular collectors’ item 

However, if you like your sportsbikes a little more modern, just as evocative but come with legendary status, you might have been tempted to pop a bid in...