Report From Italy
REPORT FROM ITALY
CARLO PERELLI
GILERA COMEBACK
Gilera has signed some of the best Italian specialists and has built four lightweight motorcycles to compete in the European Championship and the ISDT. The decision was based on Gilera’s feeling that off-road riding has both a bright commercial future and is the most useful department for improving the breed.
Riders are Italian No. 1 Alessandro Gritti, Carlo Paganessi (both ex-works Puch), Fausto Oldrati, Giuseppe Signorelli, Gualtiero Brissoni, Mauro Miele and factory tester Vincenzo Gavazzi. Sports manager is Gianni Perini, particularly experienced in ISDT rule intricacies; technical director is Walter Martini, a keen two-stroke specialist who joined the Piaggio factory in Pontedera immediately out of school in 1957 and since 1969 has operated the Güera branch at Arcore.
The bikes were designed and built at Arcore (where a special department has been organized for the job), but much work on the experimental side and material testing has been carried on ajf the Pontedera works, possessing great facilities for this task. Güera has also secured a strong team of mechanics, specialized in dirt bikes, most of them recruited in the Bergamo area, which is the most enthusiastic place in Italy for this speciality.
The bikes are a 50, a 75, a 100 and a 125, all powered by two-stroke engines with chromed bores, light alloy cylinders, electronic ignition and six-speed gearboxes. The two smaller models have piston controlled ports with three transfers, but the bigger ones have the rotating disc with three transfers.
The rotating disc is placed on the left and the carburetor just behind the ^ÄTinder on the same side. This is not only for protective and width-limiting reasons but also to improve engine flexibility at low and medium rpm ranges, due to a rather long inlet duct toward the disc.
An interesting feature on the 50 and 75 models are three small tunnels at the base of the cylinder head radial finning, so that a stream of fresh air passes through the hottest zone and takes the air to the carburetor.
Compression ratio is 12.5:1 for all models except the 50 which is 13:1. Bore and stroke are 38. 4x43, 47x43, 51x55 and 54x54; diameter of the concentric carburetors, breathing from a big fiberglass box, is 22, 24, 27 and 30mm; lubrication is by a simple 25:1 gas/oil mixture.
#The 50 and the 75 have gear primary ive and multi-plate clutch on the right, ignition apparatus on the left, while the layout is opposite in the bigger models, owing to the rotating disc. (Continued on page 146)
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The double cradle tubular frame is damped by Cerianis at the front and again Ceriani or Girling (according to riders’ preferences) at the rear. The light alloy wheels carry at the front 2.50-21 tires (for 50, 75 and 100 types), 3.00-21 (for the 125 model), and at the rear 3.00-18 (50), 3.50-18 (75 and 100), and 3.50-18 or 4.00-18 (125, according to course features).
Close replicas of these machines will be for sale to the public. First to reach the market will be the 50, while the 75 will be available toward the end of the year. Owing to the frequent strikes in the Italian industry, it will be necessary to wait until early next year for the 100 and the 125.
In the meantime, the Arcore “dirt competition” department is also intecÄ ested in motocross. A 125 is due t^^ debut in mid-summer, while a 250 two-stroke is under development.
WARTIME MODELS
ESCI of Milan has recently started production of fine 1 /9th scale wartime motorcycle models.
The ESCI range includes the famous German sidecars BMW R75 and Zundapp KS750, the English Triumph 3HW 350, the American Harley-Davidson WLA45, the Italian Moto Guzzi Alee 500 and such rare pieces as the German NSU Kettenkrad (a semi-tracked motorbike) and the lOOOcc flat Twin Belgian FN 12A SM, with machine gun protruding from an armored sidecar and a protective steel shield for the rider.
The ESCI models are assembled froni^ 200-250 pieces and offered the variou^k color schemes. The suspensions, steering, wheels, etc., are working; the tires are rubber, the saddles are suspended, and the chains are composed of links like the real things!
BIG GUN FROM ITALY
The Laverda 1000’s latest modifications include a metal tank instead of fiberglass (in accordance with German rules), two silencers instead of one, a slightly lower seat (now at 31 in. frong ground), softer damping and electronic? 18 degree automatic advance instead of mechanic. Moreover, a patented multiposition handlebar has been introduced to allow the widest range of riding positions and to fit the widest range of physics. The handlebar is made of seven pieces, with Hirth-type couplings serrated by bolts, so that everyone can choose his desired conformation.
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The bike features an electric starter, five-speed gearbox, chain driven dohc three-cylinder engine which pumps out 80 bhp at 7250 rpm. The 1000 tips the scale at 484 lb.
Testing showed 12.2 sec. over the standing quarter, with a terminal speed of 115.07 and a top speed of 135 at 7500 rpm.
The unusual crankpin setting (360 degrees for the outer ones and 180 degrees for the mid one) was chosen to further reduce vibration, coming from the unavoidably large crankshaft.
In general, the 1000 is reported to be better to drive than the 750. However, in very slow bends the 1000 seems to “drop,” a fault largely due to the Dunlop K81 TT tires, but these same tires pay good dividends in fast cornering. Another snag is the rather stiff gear change mechanism, always positive and silent, while the front brake, although extremely gradual, doesn’t seem up to the performance of such a big bike.
corner(Continued on page 152)
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NIPPON-ITALIAN 500cc RACER
Saiad from Turin is the most sports minded European Suzuki agent. Last year they were the only ones in Europe to get a 750 Daytona from the Japanese factory and they put the bike to good use with Italian Champion Guido Mandracci and Australian born, Italy-based veteran Jack Findlay. This year they have been promised a couple of the new watercooled 500s, plus mechanics, to be straddled by Mandracci and Findlay. Well-known Roberto Patrignani has left Moto Guzzi to become Saiad’s spor^ director. ^
On its own, Saiad has obtained some 500 Daytona engines and has built a good privateers mount. The frame is practically the “Titan” one, suspension comes from Ceriani, brakes from Fontana and tires from Michelin. The engine has been placed well forward, according to Findlay recommendations, lubrication is by pump, with oil in the saddle tail, and weight is 308 lb. Each bike is individually tested by either Mandracci or Findlay and the first customers report very favorably about them.
ITALIAN DESIGNER LINO TONTI
Lino Tonti is the most famous Italian designer because his name is linked to racing bikes such as Bianchi, Paton and Linto.
But Tonti deserves praise also for his non-racing projects, worked out independently or under the banner of Aermacchi, Bianchi, Güera and Moto Guzzi.
Also, Tonti is the most fertile of the Italian designers since he has approached every field, from monocoque frame to fuel injection, from hydraulic gear change to four-valve heads. He has designed scooters and big bikes, twostrokes and four-strokes, and it is undeniable that everything from his drawing board bears a clear mark of ingenuity and fresh approach.
Tonti, now 53, comes from a rural family of Cattolica, a seaside resort in Romagna, the region where enthusiasm ^>r motoring and racing is tops in Italy. Put, although he reckons that he was fascinated since early childhood by everything moving under engine power, at the technical school he specialized in electrics and in 1938 he was ready to enter the National Broadcasting Co.
A different destiny awaited him. Moto Benelli in nearby Pesaro was looking for promising young technicians. A friend invited him there and Signor Giovanni Benelli engaged him on the spot. Another sign of destiny. He was specialized in electrics but his first task at Moto Benelli, under supervision of Signor Giovanni, was to redesign the crankcase of the famous 250 racer which had to win the 1939 TT. Moreover, since planes were his greatest hobby, he was charged to design the enclosure for the 250 four-cylinders in H'iew of a record breaking operation. Pairing and machine were ready when (Continued on page 154) the outbreak of war shelved the whole business....
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“War is a crazy bloody thing,” says Tonti “But I was lucky enough to be assigned to the famous Guidonia experimental plane department. I learned much there about engines, frame, aerodynamic techniques. Toward the end of the war I even became a good mechanic because we were requested to be more practical so we had to build planes with parts taken from shot down planes.”
After the war, with Benelli in ruins, Tonti had to set out on his own. He first tuned surplus 350cc Triumphs for racing. “I took off the cast iron finning and replaced it with light alloy finning,” recalls Tonti. He had neither time nor the temperament to race himself, but he’s a good rider and we still remember him streaking aboard the 350 Bianchi Twin at Monza in the early 60s or some other tracks during testing sessions of his riders. Now, much to his displeasure, he cannot ride a bike because he was involved in a multiple pile up on the “Sun Super Highway” in summer 1971 and he got a badly broken leg which still isn’t functioning properly.
However, Tonti did some ISDT-type trialing, first with a “bitza” and then with an Aermacchi “high wheels” scooter which he had designed on his own as “Linto” (LINo-TOnti) in 1950 and was then bought by the Varese factory.
This scooter, first with a singlecylinder two-stroke 125 engine, then with a 250 Twin two-stroke engine, included many new features, such as the exhaust pipes acting as the rear suspension swinging arms. They were first produced in 1951 and were fielded in competitions (including the ISDT) to prove their value. Tonti was a member of the works team and in 1955 escaped from a temendous crash miraculously uninjured but with the traditional promise to his wife of “never again,” which he maintained.
During the Aermacchi period Tonti also produced a “flying cigar,” powered by 50 and 75cc single-cylinder dohc engines which in 1956 set many world records with Massimo Pasolini, father of Renzo. A couple of these records are still surviving and so is the machine, which can still be examined in Lino Tonti’s cellar, in Varese, together with many other fascinating examples of his tireless activity. Tonti’s “flying cigar” was the first record machine with the rider seated and the engine behind him, as it is common practice today.
The first Linto came to light in 1949. It was a chain driven dohc, at a time when two-strokes were reigning in lightweight classes. It also featured an Earles-type front fork, three years before Ernie Earles invented his famous one. Straddled by Massimo Pasolini, it won many races, including the very first one.
“On the starting line it fouled a plug,” recalls Lino Tonti, “and before it was changed the others had nearly done one lap. But when it fired and went into action, it started gaining ground. At the last lap my bike overtook the strongest opponent and took the checkered flag first. I never suffered and enjoyed so much in my life!”
Some notable Tonti designs never went beyond the experimental stage and this is a sorrow to him because he had much faith in them. Four examples: the A$54 “Dama” superscooter, with a ^bnsversal cylinder, four-stroke 175cc engine featuring shaft drive; the 1957 dohc 250 Twin Mondial racer; the 1963 Bianchi 500 twin-cylinder 500cc GP racer; and the 1965 Gilera 250 and 350 twin-cylinder dohc six-speed, electric start roadsters.
The Linto name emerged again in 1967, on the tank of a promising 500 racer with the engine utilizing many components of the then famous Aermacchi “Golden Wing” production racers. This mount had plenty of ingenious features; moreover, it had been designed with a roadster version in mind. “Our ill luck with this Linto was Agostini,” said Tonti. “Without Ago we could win many races, as proved by the 1969 Italian GP at Imola; Ago wasn’t there and so Pagani could take the Linto
êthe victory.”
But in 1970 Tonti was called to the Moto Guzzi technical department, the next year Pagani entered the MV experimental-racing department and the Linto faded away.
Lino Tonti says that his pride at Moto Guzzi is to have taken the power of the V7 from 40 to 80 bhp and to have designed the V7 Sport frame which is regarded as tops by all Italian connoisseurs. But he’s never fully satisfied with any of his work because, “I’m convinced that the best bike of my life is the one I’ll design tomorrow.” |<5
