1/24 SCALE DIE CAST MODEL HONDA NSR500 RIDEN BY THE MOST TALENTED VALENTINO ROSSI IN 2001 IN THE NASTRO AZZURRO LIVERY,  NEW AND BOXED CONDITION. MADE BY ALTAYA PART OF IXO MANUFACTURING GROUPE. 

WITH AUTHENTIC DETAIL AND DECALS.

Valentino Rossi  born 16 February 1979 is an Italian professional Motor cycle racer and multiple Moto GP World Champion. He is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with nine  Grand prix world championships to his name – seven of which are in the premier class.

Following his father, Graziano Rossi, Valentino started racing in Grand Prix in1996 for Aprolia  in the 125 cc category and won his first World Championship the following year. From there, he moved up to the 250cc category with Aprilia and won the 250cc World championship in 1999. After graduating to the premier class in 2000, he won the 500cc World championship with Honda in 2001, the Moto GP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha, before regaining the title in  2008 and retaining it in 2009, He left Yamaha to join Ducati for the 2011 season, but it was confirmed in 2012 that he would rejoin Yamaha for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Rossi is first in all time 500cc Moto GP race wins standings, with 82 victories, and second in all time overall wins standings with 108 race wins, behind Giacomo Agostini with 122.

The early years

Valentino Rossi was born in Urbino, Marche, and he was still a child when the family moved to Tavullia,  Son of Graziano Rossi,  a former motorcycle racer, he first began riding at a very young age. Rossi's first racing love was Karting,  Fuelled by his mother, Stefania's, concern for her son's safety, Graziano purchased a kart as substitute for the bike. However, the Rossi family trait of perpetually wanting to go faster prompted a redesign; Graziano replaced the 60 cc motor with a 100 cc national kart motor for his then 5-year-old son.

Rossi won the regional kart championship in 1990.After this he took up  Mini moto and before the end of 1991 had won numerous regional races.

Rossi continued to race karts and finished fifth at the national kart championships in parma. Both Valentino and Graziano had started looking at moving into the Italian 100 cc series, as well as the corresponding European series, which most likely would have pushed him into the direction of Formula One. However, the high cost of racing karts led to the decision to race mini moto exclusively. Through 1992 and 1993, Valentino continued to learn the ins and outs of mini moto racing.

In 1993, with help from his father, Virginio Ferrari, Claudio Castiglioni and Claudio Lusuardi (who ran the official cagiva  Sport Production team), he rode a cagiva Mito  125 cc motorcycle, which he damaged in a first-corner crash no more than a hundred metres from the pit lane. He finished ninth that race weekend.

Although his first season in the Italian Sport Production Championship was varied, he achieved a pole position in the season's final race at Misano,  where he would ultimately finish on the podium. By the second year, Rossi had been provided with a factory Mito by Lusuardi and won the Italian title.

125 cc, 250 cc and 500 cc World Championships

In 1994, Aprilia by way of Peppino Sandroni, used Rossi to improve its RS125R and in turn allowed him to learn how to handle the fast new pace of 125 cc racing. At first he found himself on a Sandroni, with a Rotax-Aprilia engine in the 1994 Italian championship and continued to ride it through the 1995 European and Italian championships.

Rossi had some success in the 1996 World Championship season, failing to finish five of the season's races and crashing several times. Despite this, in August he won his first World Championship Grand Prix at brnu in the Czech Republic on an  AGV Aprilia RS125R. He finished the season in ninth position and proceeded to dominate the 125 cc World Championship in the following1997 season, winning 11 of the 15 races.

By 1998, the Aprilia RS250 was reaching its pinnacle and had a team of riders in Valentino Rossi, Loris Capirossi and Tetsuya Harada. He later concluded the 1998 250 cc season in second place, 23 points behind Capirossi. In 1999, however, he won the title, collecting five pole positions and nine wins.

Rossi was rewarded in 2000 for his 250 cc World Championship by being given a ride with Honda in what was then the ultimate class in World Championship motorcycle racing, 500 cc. Retired 500 cc World Champion Michael Dooham, who also had Jeremy Burgess as chief engineer, worked with Rossi as his personal mentor in his first year at Honda. It would also be the first time Rossi would be racing against Max Biaggi. It would take nine races before Rossi would win on the Honda but, like his previous seasons in 125 and 250, it would bode well for a stronger second season as he finished second to American Kenny Roberts, Jr. Rossi recorded only two wins during the season, winning in Great Britain and Brazil.

Rossi won his first 500 cc World Championship in 2001 (winning 11 races) in the final year of that class and collected 325 points, 106 points ahead of Biaggi, who became Rossi's main rival during the season. In the following year, 500cc two-strokes were still allowed, but 2002 saw the beginning of the 990 cc four-stroke Moto GP class, after which the 500 cc machines were essentially obsolete. In 2001 Rossi teamed up with American rider Colin Edwards for the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race aboard a Honda VTR 1000 SPW.  The pair won the race despite Rossi's lack of experience racing superbikes.