The MV Agusta brand survived thanks to Castiglioni family. In 1960 Italian industrial entrepreneur Giovanni Castiglioni founded a metal fittings plant to produce buttons and rivets for jeans, locks and loops for suitcases, and similar fittings. This business was successful and soon two of Giovanni's sons — Gianfranco and Claudio — joined the company. They both had a passion for motorcycles, probably caused by the proximity of Aermacchi (the European subsidiary of AMF-Harley-Davidson since 1960) factory in Varese. At the end of 1976, when MV announced its withdrawal from motorcycle racing, Castiglioni brothers tried to buy the MV racing team, but Corrado Agusta did not approve the deal. Then Castiglioni bought a Suzuki RG500, painted it in traditional MV Agusta colours — red and silver — and provided it to the racers Gianfranco Bonera and Marco Lucchinelli in the 1978 racing season. In the same year, they bought the Aermacchi factory in Varese and renaming it Cagiva (CAstiglioni + GIovanni + VArese). Brothers were focused on more on racing rather than on serial production and they launched the new project Cagiva GP500 lead by Ezio Mascheroni, former head of the AMF-Harley-Davidson racing division.