Veloce Aperion Revealed With Insane 280hp 1000cc Eight-Cylinder Two-Stroke Engine

British startup Veloce Motorcycles has unveiled the Aperion, a 1,000cc eight-cylinder two-stroke naked motorcycle producing a claimed 280hp at 12,000rpm. Only 24 units of the Veloce Aperion will be built, with deliveries starting from 2027.

The Veloce Aperion was first shown at the Bike Shed Moto Show in London last week, and each example will carry an individual UK Motor Single Vehicle Approval (MSVA) certification for road use. Pricing has been set at £78,000 (Rs 97.15 lakh).

Veloce Aperion - Engine & Performance

The Aperion's engine, called the X8, uses eight cylinders derived from the Aprilia RS125, arranged in two V4 banks around a central gearbox housing to form an X-shape. Each bank is machined from billet in four sections and houses two crankshafts with forged pistons.

The crankshafts are geared to a common jackshaft that drives a custom clutch and a six-speed transmission. Fuelling comes from eight 24mm Dellorto carburettors, operated through a spiral-cable twistgrip, with the engine running on pre-mixed petrol and two-stroke oil.

The 280hp figure roughly works out to 35hp from each individual 125cc cylinder. with performance hardware supplied by tuning specialist Mitaka helping the Veloce Aperion hit that insane output.

One of the most striking elements of the Veloce Aperion is its exhaust system. Expansion chambers are critical to two-stroke power delivery, and packaging eight of them is a significant engineering challenge that Veloce has solved using laser-sintered, all-alloy resonance chambers.

The engine, chassis and transmission form a single structural unit, with welded steel trellis subframes at the front and rear. An aluminium single-sided swingarm sits at the back, actuating a shock absorber via a pull-rod linkage mounted low on the engine for better mass centralisation.

Veloce Ethereal: The Smaller Sibling

Alongside the Aperion, Veloce has also announced the Ethereal, a 500cc four-cylinder two-stroke producing a claimed 145hp at 12,000rpm. It uses an unconventional 'reversed' gearbox layout, with the input shaft positioned behind the output shaft. The Ethereal also gets an underseat radiator, with ducted air pulled through the tank and exhausted out the rear of the tail unit. Like the Aperion, the Veloce Ethereal is also road-legal in the UK, however, it is limited to 48 units.