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Moto Guzzi's catalogue racer (by Ian Falloon, Mar 2022) ![]() Making
singles fly was once a Guzzi specialty
By 1926 the success of
Moto Guzzi's racing program was beginning to pay
dividends. There were now 350
employees at Mandello producing around 3000 motorcycles
a year. With the classic Guzzi
layout of a horizontal engine, tubular double-cradle
frame and three-speed unit
gearbox now well established, the 250 would also
follow this pattern. Carlo Guzzi’s
intention was to compete in the Isle of Man TT, and on
May 1, 1926, made the
new 250 available to the magazine Motociclismo
for testing. The lines
closely followed that of the C4V but the engine now
had square dimensions, 68 x
68mm bore and stroke, and a bevel-gear driven single
overhead camshaft
operating two valves. These had an included angle of
58º, a very narrow angle
for that time, and this undoubtedly contributed to be
very high specific power
output of 60 horsepower per litre. In 1926 this was an
extraordinary figure for normally aspirated engines,
and only matched by the
Delage and Bugatti Grand Prix cars. With an 8:1
compression ratio, the 15 horsepower was produced at
6000rpm. This increase in
rpm was enabled through the use of roller big-end
bearings instead of plain
bushes, and these were soon adopted on the 500cc C4V.
Weighing in at only
105kg, the TT250 was capable of around 118km/h
(73.3mph). In June a 250 and 500
were taken to Isle of Man for Pietro Ghersi to ride in
the Lightweight and
Senior TTs. On the TT250, now with
a Binks hand throttle and André steering damper,
Ghersi astonished the partisan
crowd by finishing second behind CW (Paddy) Johnston’s
Cotton and setting the
fastest lap at 63.12mph (101.6km/h). Unfortunately Ghersi
was disqualified for changing an unspecified spark
plug (to a FERT instead of
KLG) during the race but it had been an impressive
racing debut in the most
prestigious race in Europe. He retired during the
Senior TT. Although the Isle of
Man had been a disappointing event, 1926 was a very
successful year for Guzzi
in competition, with 42 victories. A month after the TT,
in the Circuito del Lario, Ugo Prini rode to victory
in the 250 Class, although
Pietro Ghersi was defeated by the Sunbeam of Achille
Varzi in the 500 class. The most important
event of the year in Italy though was the Nations
Grand Prix held at Monza in
September. Here again the 250 was triumphant, with
Prini and Ghersi joint
winners. The TT250 was then marketed as a catalogue
racer.
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