Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Benelli 250cc Quattro Racer ap pa re n tly did, or else sit up (g iv ing a pre tt y useful im ita tion of an air brake w h e n you d o s o , o n such a light b ike ) and try to grip the upper frame rails wit h y our kne e s. That wa y , yo u' ll be abl e t o r id e o u t a ny b umps the fa irly stiff-set su spe n sion [?@fJUDDDW [jJ{}[}~D[JiJ @~~ speed . A n d the Be ne lli has r eally Most people thi nk Honda invented the whole intricate busin ess of small -capa city , m ulti cylinder four -stroke GP bikes, starting with the ir 250 fours from 1960 on wards - but while Big H certainly gained m uch fame as well as compe tit ion good fortun e from their lightweight mul tis, they were neithe r the first nor the only compa ny to develop such technic all y asto undi ng designs . Se e, Ben elli ne utra l h andl ing : it goes where you were there , too. poin t it , es p ecia lly wi th the n ew -g en - Faced wit h the task of rebuil ding the ir co mpa ny , the brothers Benelli had previously been noted in the postwar era for a standard of engi neering that was worth y rather than spectacul ar, typified by the first 250cc GP Wor ld Cha m pio nship cli nched fo r the Pesaro family con cern in 1950 by Da rio Ambros ini. Th is was achieved with a DOC H single whose design dated well into th e prewar era, and wasn't so very different from the similar bik e on which Ted Mellors had won the 1939 Lightweight TT in the Isle of Man for the Itali an marque - a bike whose development continued on a desult ory basis throug ho ut the '50s, with rid ers of the caliber of Geoff Duk e and Dicki e Dal e. But in Jun e of 1960, Benelli astoni shed the motor cycle worl d by unveiling an in -line fo urcylinder DOCH racer whi ch design er Aulo SaveIIi had been workin g on in secret since the summer of '58 - thus coming out at the same time as Hon da's own first four -cylinder 250cc contender. Except that , in Benelli's case, the Italian firm was entitled to cla im that their new 250 GP Quattro was a postwar makeover of one they di d earlier - 20 yea rs pr eviousl y , in fact , at the outbreak of WW2. For in 1940 , Beneili had earned the accolade - to gether with Gile ra whose less sop histicated rival air-cooled design appea red at the sa me ti me - of produ ci ng the wor ld 's fir st ligh tw eig ht fo u r -cyli nder GP rac er. It was a water -c ool ed , supe rc harged 250 whos e development was abort ed by the advent of war , and was subsequently sti llbo rn by the postwar ban on supercha rgi ng. While adoptin g the same broad layo ut 20 year s on, Savesi's postwar un-supercharged bik e was inevitably quite different in detail. But while esta blishing the design format that led to a decade of dev el opm en t an d , in 1969 , Ben ell i 's sec ond 250cc wo rld t it le thanks to Au stralian Kel Carruthers, th e new bike took tim e to reach the racet rack, with works rider Silvio Grassetti maki ng th e Benelli four' s debut only in April 1962 in the Im ol a Gol d Cup . Alt ho ug h h e showed prom ise th ere, ti w as a week lat er at t he seaside tr ack of Cesenatico th at Grass etti gave the new Benelli an im pressive first victory , bea ti ng t he works Ho nd as of Rob Phillis and Jim Redman in a non -titl e internati onal. In its GP debut another week lat er in Spai n, the Italian four gave th e well -dev eloped Hondas another frig ht, before retiring with igni tio n trouble - the genuine kind, too , not the sort whic h happens because a rod is st icking out of th e crankcase. It see m ed that, just maybe, the small It ali an factory had the makings of a genuin e contender. Benelli spent 1963 raci ng the new four cyli nde r bik e al most excl usi vely in It aly , bo th for promoti on al and R& D purposes , with occasional sorties abroad suc h as to the Germ an GP at Hock enheim , where Grassetti added furth er enco urageme nt by build ing a health y lead over the Hon das and Mor ini , bef ore slow ing wit h a vapor lock which he resol ved by blowing down th e fuel ta nk b reathe r tube down t he lo n g , fast straig hts . This dropped him to fourth plac e in a race won by Provini's Morini single, and this legendary duo proved the Benelli's bugbear in Italian national racing that year - ju st as it so nearly was fo r t he works Hond a fours in GP racing. But with the even more does n't absorb m ore e asi ly , though even here the low center of grav ity not only he lps th e b ik e c h an g e d irectio n q u ickly , it also makes it more s t a b le w he n yo u h i t r oad r a s h at e r a tio n KR82 5 equivale nts o f the Dunlo p tria ngula rs t he bike w as b o rn to rac e w ith . Surprisin gl y , I w as ab le to sq ueeze m y sel f aboard the B en elli much bette r th an expected fo r so meone of m y un-Latin b ui ld , with only the h ig h -set footpegs ' pro x im i t y to the upper sweep of the m eg a pho n e exhausts a p roble m , in terms of fi ndi ng somewhe re to p a rk m y heel s . E v en with my ex tra weight c ompared to Pro vini in h is he yda y , the b ike stops reasona b ly well w ith th e t w in leading - sh o e O ld ani front brak e - but o nly at th e r edu ced s peeds I r i d e it at. I n its pri me , it was ev idently under b ra k ed , as m anifest ed b y Provini 's decision to ex pe ri me nt wi t h th e A irh e a rt d isc s , th en in t he end a m e atier four lead ing -shoe Cerian i d ru m . Riding t he Ben elli is a re vela tio n. It' s mu ch le ss h ighl y - st r un g t han a Honda mu lti of t h e era, far m ore fo r givin g and also less of a worry t han a p er iod t w o - stro k e , an d qu it e a b it fast er than eq u ally u ser -f riendly tw ins of the tim e - lik e t he P at on or B ianch i. So wh y then did it ta k e so long for the Benelli 250 fou r t o win it s justly deserved World crown? It h ad to be a combi nation of fin ance, a nd focus: for to o long t he small It a l ia n fact o ry concentrated t oo ha rd o n w innin g at hom e , lac k in g confidence in their resou rce s b eing lar g e enough to c ha lle nge t he m i g h t of J ap a n Inc . f ac e to fac e o n t he world st ag e . When t h e J apanes e tea ms ret i red f ro m GP rac ing , B enell i was there to pick up t he cham p ions hip b at o n - but as t hat May d ay in Mon tjuich showed b ack in 19 64 , B enel li could ru n with a nd d efeat t he b est , without w a it in g to wi n a world t itle a lmost b y default. T h e 2 5 0 B en e ll i fo ur is a monu m ent to the golden age of technica l GP d ev el opm ent - a li vi n g , mu si c al m emorial to the d ay s wh en eng ineers w ere invited to ask ' How?' instea d of ' W h y not? ' , before th e FIM impo sed th e set o f re strict iv e co nstrai n ts on th eir virtuosity which have la st ed un t il now, but m ay b e swept away by the a d ve n t o f t he n e w fo u r -s t roke G P rules. C on c e i v e d in 1 960, the Be nelli 250 fo ur fin a ll y reached its frui tion in 19 69 , just in time to b e b ann ed for b e ing interest ing, co m plicated and eN evolutionary . 42 JUL Y 5 , 2000' cue I e the eight-valve Pesaro four in a full season of GP races in 1964 . The dream team that Provini and 8eneili came to represent had a fairytale GP debut in the pair's first race together at Montjuich , beating Redm an 's Honda by more than 20 seconds to win the 1964 Spanish GP. That was th e best it got that year, though, with a fourth at Assen and two fifth pla ces in Bel9ium and Germ any the only oth er points fin Ishes - still good enough for fift h place in the cham pio nship . At home, however , Provi ni had trouble with th e m an who succeeded him at Morini, one Giacomo Ago sti ni, who on tight Italian street ci rcuits had the beating of the Benelli four with his swift sinqle, Ago wrested Provini's Italian ti tle away fro m him, en route to bei ng snapped up b y Count Ag usta for the following season. That left Provini in a class of his own in 1965, riding a mu ch improved bike with wh ich he not only wo n th e Italian nati on al titl e and finished fourt h in the Isle of Man TT , but also scored a mem orable wet weather win in the Italian GP at Monza on a new eig ht-speed version of th e bike . Provini lapp ed th e entire field to win a race that had also seen the debut of the V-fo ur Yamaha 250 - while the same meeti ng saw the debut of t he mu ch rumored ov erbored 322cc vers ion of the bike, which Provini too k to a sati sfying thi rd plac e in the 350cc Italian GP. Benelli and Provini came to gether for a thi rd successive season in 1966 , conc entrating once again on winni ng the Itali an titl e, as they did, with only a hand ful of GP outings. It was in the last of these, at the Isle of Man TT put back to Au gust because of the seaman 's strike , th at Pro v i ni suffe red his career -ending c rash in early -morning practice , when he was unexpectedly blinded by the sun and hit the bank near Ballaugh, sufferi ng ba ck injuries from wh ich he took some years to recover. His place in the team was take n for the nex t three seasons by Renzo Pasolin i though it was sta nd-in rider Carruthers who eventua lly gave the li ttl e Itali an factory its much deserved second Worl d titl e with the ultimate version of the 250 Quattro in 1969 . A yea r lat er, in 197 0 , th e FIM banned bikes with more than two cylinders and six gears from competing in the 250cc cl ass, a my opic decision leavin g the door open for an ident ikit ar ra y of tw o - str ok e twin s to dominate GP racing rig ht up to the present day , all in the presumed cause of reducing costs. Yet the irony was th at the impoverished Ben elli co ncern had am ply prov ed that, with the suppo rt of ingenuity, dedication and determination, pa ssion co uld t ri- umph over all, and th at a multi -cylinder four-stroke that had been a decade in the devel opment c o uld eventually bec ome World Ch am p ion . T o o bad th e FIM ban meant that the Benelli 250cc V-eight racer projected for 1970 , casti ngs for which were complete and an engine being built up ready for dyn o testi ng in an effort to defeat the disda ined two-strok e s once again , never got bui lt - and instead B en elli reti red fr om 250cc GP racing , for good. It was a bla ck moment for admirers of technical ing enu ity 'and mu sica l ex hau st notes - as well as support ers of the charisma tic underdog in GP racing . For Beneili 's quixotic Grand Prix involvem en t was bankroll ed exclus ively b y the profi ts from their limited produc tio n of road bik es and m op eds , leavened with a large meas ure of the Italian passion for com petition inbre d in th e Beneili family. Th is ultimately explains, too , why Beneili's achieve m ent s do wn the years have gone large ly unherald ed, thanks not only to their lim ited budget but also to the low -k ey , unostentatious approach which addressed th eir racing efforts. For instea d of a bombast ic , larger tha n life personali ty like Cou nt Dom eni co Ag usta, runni ng a hig h-profile superteam packed with sta r riders , the retiring Benell i fa mil y r eli ed o n a c lose -k n it sq ua d of desig ners, me chanics and usually j ust one rider at a tim e, with a second calle d in for more importa nt races. With a Benelli co usin, Innocenzo Nardi De i, as team manager , th e Pesaro -based factory tea m noneth eless achieved co nsiderable success on the racetrack given their available resources, with riders of the caliber of Heilwood , Saarin en, Read, Villa, Pasolin i and Provini happy to rid e for them - even thoug h the straigh tened finances of the littl e factory meant they co uldn't match the ki nd of fees pai d by the Ja panese giants, or MV Agusta. Beneili was a David of a factory against the Goliath s of GP racin g - yet their quixotic challenge paid off with a steady now of race success, culmi na ting in Car rut hers ' wor ld title. An d when the Pesaro factory 's race department was clo sed dow n in 1973, in the w ak e of th e co mpa ny 's takeove r b y de Toma so, Beneili ' s legacy to the road-racing world was already in place. Ex -race team mechanic Eugenio Lazzarini went on to win two Worl d ti tl es as a rider, and his co lleague Erald o Ferracci found fame and fortu ne in Am erica before tak in g Dou g Pol en to the Wor ld Sup erbike Cha m pio nship titl e on a Du c ati. Indeed, staff from the old Benelli factory ' squadra corse' played key roles in the GP succ ess gained by in the past quarter century by all th e many other race teams based in th e Pesaro area, such as Morbidelli , MBA , Bimota, RTM, Sanven ero , Ring hini, Plovat lcci (later to becom e Bul tac o ), Parisi enn e, Iprem , Ad Maiora, etc. , etc. Qu ite a legacy. under fun de d M o rini factory 's ret irement from GP racin g at th e end of the season, this left the way cl ear for Provini to join Benelli and sign to race a heavily revised version of De""s Benelli president Andrea Mertoni (left) discusses the super-charged Benelli with noted restorer Glancarto Morbldelli (right) during the recent Isle of Man TT.

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