Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1506555
D uring the halcyon days of Italian motorcycle Grand Prix domination, the name Mondial was never far from the top of the podium. The Milanese concern captured 10 riders and construc- tors' World Championships between 1949 and 1957—the year they swept the World 125cc and 250cc crowns before pulling out of GP racing with fellow Ital- ian constructors MV Agusta and Morini. The company eventually died a slow and very public death by the end of the 1960s, and seem- ingly a great name was confined to the history books until Italian printing tycoon Roberto Ziletti bought the rights to the Mondial name from the Boselli family at the end of last century. Ziletti's dream was to create a machine that would see Mon- dial racing and winning again at the highest level, and he set his sights on the World Superbike Championship. The machine he would use was an all-new bespoke design of only 250 examples, using a Suzuki TL1000R engine. How- ever, just before the Piega was shown to a salivating public at the 2000 EICMA Show in Milan, Suzuki reneged on the deal to supply engines and Ziletti was left with a gorgeous chassis but no engine! Faced with a rather embar- rassing scenario, Ziletti called on what must be the longest- standing corporate favor in motorcycle history and landed a supply of the Honda SP1 engine. The favor stretches back to that stellar 1957 season when Count Giuseppe Boselli, at the request of a young Sochiro Honda, sold the Japanese engineer one of his factory 125cc race bikes so Honda could study the technol - ogy that was being used to win grand prix races. The Honda Motor Company never forgot the deed, so when Ziletti came call - ing for a new engine to fit in the Piega, Honda duly paid the favor back. It was quite remarkable be- cause Honda very rarely (if ever) gives out their engines for use in another manufacturer's chassis. So Ziletti had his engine, and the world got to see his first cre- ation at the 2000 Intermot Show. The next two years would see the machine go through various development stages, where they experimented with their own Mondial brand brake and sus- pension components. This came to nothing because the produc- CNIIARCHIVES P114 BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK THE BIKE THAT NEARLY BOUGHT A GREAT NAME MONDIAL: A thing of beauty, absolutely, but the Mondial Piega is also a tragic piece as the last fledgling hope of a revived company.