A
bit of motorcycle Grand Prix history was created this July when
a Gilera, ridden by Manuel Poggiali raced ahead to win the 125cc
class of the French Grand Prix at the Le Mans Circuit. It was the
first GP win since the 1963 Dutch TT for one of Grand Prix racing's
most revered marques. Italian bike maker Gilera was the first to
make and race 500cc and 350cc machines sporting four-cylinder engines
laid inline in the frame with success. What everyone takes for granted
as the epitome of Italian two-wheeled racing machinery - MV Agusta
- was not even in the same league as Gilera who trounced everyone
in sight fair and square and then stunned the world by withdrawing
from the sport! It was a sad and, as many tend to think, foolish
decision but that is what the history books suggest.
Gilera got into the blue riband class of the sport when it took
over the four-cylinder Rondine racer project which had first surfaced
in 1934. The liquid-cooled Rondine's supercharged engine featured
cylinder dimensions of 52x58mm and with one Piero Raruffi astride
the 60bhp machine, it stroked to its first major win - the 1935
Tripoli Grand Prix. Taruffi followed this up with a second win on
the trot by being first past the flag in the Pescara GP. However,
the firm which owned Rondine - CNA - were short on finances and
they sold the project to Gilera who immediately set after establishing
various speed records. Italian Dorino Serafini was undisputed champion
in 1938 and 1939 on the blown Gilera but it was all changed after
racing resumed in 1946.
Supercharging was banned and the great Italian bike engineer - Ing
Pietro Remor (he came from CNA to tend the Rondine which he had
designed) - recast the engine in a style which since then has been
universally adopted for all successful overhead cam fours. He also
switched over to air cooling and the architecture was now more upright
than inclined. Four individual carburettors (Dell'ortos), separate
cylinder barrels, twin heads and full-width cam covers followed
as well. Power take off for the primary and camshaft drives was
from the centre of the crankshaft. A five-speed gearbox was standard
tackle.
Even though it may have had the legs of the British biles like the
AJS Porcupine and the Norton Manx, it didn't have the reliability
in the early years but once this was taken care of, it bagged the
World Riders' Championship for Italian ace Umberto Masetti in 1950
and 1952. The great British rider Geoff Duke had his sweet handling
Norton Manx upstage the Gileras for the world title in 1951 but
Masetti blew him off the following year. Having seen the Italian
multis just chew the British singles, Duke switched camps and promptly
repeated as 500cc champion in 1953, '54 and '55. Adding to the stylish
Geoff Duke's impeccable race craft was the wily old warrior Piero
Taruffi who mixed jobs as development engineer for Gilera while
driving works Ferraris in sports car events like Le Mans, the Mille
Miglia and the Targa Florio.
Duke would have added more were he not suspended for heading a riders'
strike at Assen allowing John Surtees and MV Agusta to win the 500cc
World Championship for the first time. But Gilera bounced back in
1957 when the pairing of Bob McIntyre and Libero Liberati beat everyone
soundly. Bob Mac was in contention for the world title but injuries
prevented him from starting the last and final GP of the season
- the Italian at Monza, where Liberati won and overhauled his team-mate
to clinch his and Gilera's world titles that season. Earlier in
the same year, McIntyre went on to create some more biking history
when he clocked the first four 100mph laps in the Isle of Man TT
races, making the great John Surtees look like an abject novice
on the MV.
The mid-1950s was the golden age of bike sport according to many
and the Italian firms like Gilera, Mondial, Moto Guzzi, Ducati and
others agreed among themselves to withdraw en masse at the end of
the 1957 season - their objectives (that of Italian domination of
the two-wheeled GP circuits) being achieved. Thankfully history
shows that MV didn't join in but Gilera paid dearly for their decision.
Had the Gillies not departed the battles between them and MV Agusta
could have been mega ones.
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