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Auktionsarchiv: Los-Nr. 537

1957/1997 Gilera 500cc Replica Grand Prix Racing Motorcycle Engine no. 03

Schätzpreis
75.000 £ - 100.000 £
ca. 149.220 $ - 198.960 $
Zuschlagspreis:
n. a.
Auktionsarchiv: Los-Nr. 537

1957/1997 Gilera 500cc Replica Grand Prix Racing Motorcycle Engine no. 03

Schätzpreis
75.000 £ - 100.000 £
ca. 149.220 $ - 198.960 $
Zuschlagspreis:
n. a.
Beschreibung:

Gilera first sprang to prominence in the late 1930s, when the Italian firm’s supercharged four-cylinder racers trounced BMW in Grands Prix and snatched the world speed record away from the German marque. Throughout the 1950s it was Gilera’s racers that again grabbed the headlines, the Arcore-built fours taking five manufacturer’s titles and six individual championships in the hands of riders such as Duke, Liberati and Masetti between 1950 and 1957. Founded by Count Giuseppe Gilera in 1909, Gilera first became involved in top-flight international racing when it purchased the moribund Rondine project from Caproni in 1936. The Rondine had originated back in the early 1920s when graduate engineers Piero Remor and Carlo Gianini first drew up a four-cylinder motorcycle engine. The design was taken up by Count Luigi Bonmartini and first entered in competition, as the OPRA, in 1928. After a handful of promising outings the project was allowed to lapse, reappearing under the auspices of another of Bonmartini’s companies, CNA (Compagnia Nazionale Aeronatica) in 1933. Design was entrusted to Gianini with assistance from rider Piero Taruffi, the Italian 500cc Champion who had occasionally raced the OPRA. The influential CNA four would set the pattern for such engines for years to come. Although still a transverse four, the CNA owed little to its OPRA predecessor and was supercharged. The water-cooled cylinders sloped forwards at 45 degrees and were cast in pairs with integral cylinder heads. Two valves per cylinder were opened by twin overhead camshafts driven via a gear train from the centre of the crankshaft, while the primary drive, also by gears, was taken from between cylinders one and two. The ’blower sat above the gearbox and the entire assembly was housed in an unusual frame consisting of pressed steel side members that looked not unlike a modern superbike frame, albeit the ‘wrong’ way up. Dubbed the ‘Rondine’ (swallow), the revolutionary new four debuted at the Tripoli Grand Prix in March 1935, when Taruffi and team-mate Rossetti scored a dream 1-2 finish. Taruffi won again in the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara and had set a new 500cc class world speed record of 152mph when Bonmartini decided to retire and sold his business interests to aircraft manufacturer Caproni. Located in Milan, Caproni had no interest –at that time – in motorcycle manufacture and in 1936 sold on the Rondine project to their neighbours Gilera. Under Gilera stewardship the blown four was redesigned in the interests of improved reliability and installed in a tubular frame fitted with Gilera’s pivoted fork rear suspension. Early race outings were dogged by teething problems, but at the 1937 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Giordano Aldrighetti outpaced the rival BMW and Moto Guzzi teams to score the Gilera four’s first Grand Prix victory. After a disappointing season in 1938, the Gilera four emphatically demonstrated its superiority the following year when Aldrighetti’s replacement, Dorinio Serafini, claimed the European Championship, capping a glorious year that had seen Taruffi raise the hour record to 127mph back in April. With supercharging banned by the FIM, Gilera’s post-war campaign relied on the single-cylinder Saturno while Piero Remor drew up a normally aspirated four. Although its air-cooled cylinders were inclined at 30 degrees, in most other respects the new four followed the layout of its blown predecessor and was ready for testing by the spring of 1948. With 48bhp available at the rear wheel and weighing a featherweight 270lbs, the new Gilera should have been an instant success but was dogged by lubrication problems and handling deficiencies; rider Nello Pagani described it as ‘unrideable’, much to Remor’s annoyance. With Remor and Pagani at loggerheads, the four fared little better in 1949. Nevertheless, Pagani had bagged two Grand Prix victories by the season’s end, at which point the mercurial Remor departed for MV. Piero Taruffi returned, and for the 1

Auktionsarchiv: Los-Nr. 537
Auktion:
Datum:
29.04.2007
Auktionshaus:
Bonhams London
Stafford, Staffordshire County Showground Staffordshire County Showground Weston Road Stafford ST18 0BD Tel: +44 207 447 7447 Fax : +44 207 447 7401 info@bonhams.com
Beschreibung:

Gilera first sprang to prominence in the late 1930s, when the Italian firm’s supercharged four-cylinder racers trounced BMW in Grands Prix and snatched the world speed record away from the German marque. Throughout the 1950s it was Gilera’s racers that again grabbed the headlines, the Arcore-built fours taking five manufacturer’s titles and six individual championships in the hands of riders such as Duke, Liberati and Masetti between 1950 and 1957. Founded by Count Giuseppe Gilera in 1909, Gilera first became involved in top-flight international racing when it purchased the moribund Rondine project from Caproni in 1936. The Rondine had originated back in the early 1920s when graduate engineers Piero Remor and Carlo Gianini first drew up a four-cylinder motorcycle engine. The design was taken up by Count Luigi Bonmartini and first entered in competition, as the OPRA, in 1928. After a handful of promising outings the project was allowed to lapse, reappearing under the auspices of another of Bonmartini’s companies, CNA (Compagnia Nazionale Aeronatica) in 1933. Design was entrusted to Gianini with assistance from rider Piero Taruffi, the Italian 500cc Champion who had occasionally raced the OPRA. The influential CNA four would set the pattern for such engines for years to come. Although still a transverse four, the CNA owed little to its OPRA predecessor and was supercharged. The water-cooled cylinders sloped forwards at 45 degrees and were cast in pairs with integral cylinder heads. Two valves per cylinder were opened by twin overhead camshafts driven via a gear train from the centre of the crankshaft, while the primary drive, also by gears, was taken from between cylinders one and two. The ’blower sat above the gearbox and the entire assembly was housed in an unusual frame consisting of pressed steel side members that looked not unlike a modern superbike frame, albeit the ‘wrong’ way up. Dubbed the ‘Rondine’ (swallow), the revolutionary new four debuted at the Tripoli Grand Prix in March 1935, when Taruffi and team-mate Rossetti scored a dream 1-2 finish. Taruffi won again in the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara and had set a new 500cc class world speed record of 152mph when Bonmartini decided to retire and sold his business interests to aircraft manufacturer Caproni. Located in Milan, Caproni had no interest –at that time – in motorcycle manufacture and in 1936 sold on the Rondine project to their neighbours Gilera. Under Gilera stewardship the blown four was redesigned in the interests of improved reliability and installed in a tubular frame fitted with Gilera’s pivoted fork rear suspension. Early race outings were dogged by teething problems, but at the 1937 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Giordano Aldrighetti outpaced the rival BMW and Moto Guzzi teams to score the Gilera four’s first Grand Prix victory. After a disappointing season in 1938, the Gilera four emphatically demonstrated its superiority the following year when Aldrighetti’s replacement, Dorinio Serafini, claimed the European Championship, capping a glorious year that had seen Taruffi raise the hour record to 127mph back in April. With supercharging banned by the FIM, Gilera’s post-war campaign relied on the single-cylinder Saturno while Piero Remor drew up a normally aspirated four. Although its air-cooled cylinders were inclined at 30 degrees, in most other respects the new four followed the layout of its blown predecessor and was ready for testing by the spring of 1948. With 48bhp available at the rear wheel and weighing a featherweight 270lbs, the new Gilera should have been an instant success but was dogged by lubrication problems and handling deficiencies; rider Nello Pagani described it as ‘unrideable’, much to Remor’s annoyance. With Remor and Pagani at loggerheads, the four fared little better in 1949. Nevertheless, Pagani had bagged two Grand Prix victories by the season’s end, at which point the mercurial Remor departed for MV. Piero Taruffi returned, and for the 1

Auktionsarchiv: Los-Nr. 537
Auktion:
Datum:
29.04.2007
Auktionshaus:
Bonhams London
Stafford, Staffordshire County Showground Staffordshire County Showground Weston Road Stafford ST18 0BD Tel: +44 207 447 7447 Fax : +44 207 447 7401 info@bonhams.com
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