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Moto Guzzi Engineering Brilliance From The Shores Of Lake Como

Moto Guzzi Brilliance from the shores of Lake Como"In Italy, there is one motorcycle marque that stands above all others when it comes to history and tradition: Moto Guzzi. Today Guzzi is seen very much as a traditionalist, but this was not always so. From its inception shortly after the first Great War, its initial efforts remain shining examples of vision and achievement - and this would continue until the end of the 1950's, some four decades later. From its Mandelo del Lario factory came a constant stream of mould-breaking designs which were to achieve glory on both road and track.

From the start, Moto Guzzi realised the importance of racing as an effective means of publicity, and were active in this branch of the sport until their final withdrawal at the end of the 1957 season. During this period, Guzzi had an engineering team which could match the best anywhere in the motorcycle world. These technicians will forever be remembered, not only for the string of World Championships and TT victories but their amazing versatility in racing design. In addition to a whole series of successful singles they were also responsible for various other configurations, including V-twin, across-the-frames, in-line 4, and V8.

Moto Guzzi Brilliance from the shores of Lake ComoGuzzi also built its own wind tunnel facilities to rest and develop streamlining for their machines, which contributed enormously to their racing and record breaking feats. On the production side, following the Second World War, Guzzi reinforced its position as the largest of all Italy's bike builders with a range which not only included the ever-popular horizontal four-stroke singles but a new series of small capacity two-strokes (many with rotary valve induction), and an interesting motorcycle-cum-scooter called the Galletto.

Other popular post-war singles, both four strokes, were the Lodola and Stornello; but then, in the late 1960's, the once great factory struck hard times. It was eventually saved by the Argentinian business tycoon Alejandro de Tomaso, who set about rebuilding both profits and model range. Not only did de Tomaso save Guzzi, he also cashed in on the 90º V-twin range which had begun in the mid 1960's with the first V7, established several joint venture 'badge engineering' exercises with Benelli and, perhaps his biggest achievement, masterminded an entirely new family of middleweight V-twins which today extends from 350 to 750cc."

This is another excellent book from Mick Walker with oodles of details about the history of Moto Guzzi's engineering achievements. Not particularly 'technical' heavy. It's a 128 page soft back book in full colour throughout. It's written in the authors inimitable style that makes reading about Moto Guzzi engineering and design development interesting.

A good read with plenty of great photographs.

First published in 1993 by Osprey Automotive (Reed Consumer Books Ltd).

Author: Mick Walker

ISBN: 1-85532-720-1

RRP: £?



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