c.1966 Motobi Zanzani 250GP Road Racer

Engine no. 17G.O.BEN.SS.250

· Exquisite, rare Italian 'tuner built' 1960s road racer
· Tiny, hand built 250 still capable of vintage road racing success
· Ready to run with many spare parts

A simple family squabble led to one of Italian motorcycling's most interesting sidelights. In 1949 when eldest sibling Giuseppe Benelli disagreed with his five brothers about the running of Benelli Motorcycles, he took his engineering prowess across town and started his own company, Motobi. In 1953 came the 'power egg' style of engine with its forward-facing laydown (horizontal) cylinder that the brand would become known for. Giuseppe passed away in 1957, leaving the company to his two sons, Luigi and Marco. Both were enamored with racing and hatched a plan to get Motobi into the headlines. They hired Primo Zanzani, a former racer and brilliant, self-taught tuner, to turn their 125 and 175cc models into production roadracers for Italy's Formula 3 class, an important steppingstone to national and international competition. The results were impressive: In 1965 alone, with a 250cc model joining the mix, Motobi riders took a total of 16 Italian Junior championships! Many Americans first learned of Motobi in 1962 when rider Jess Thomas used a Zanzani-tuned 207cc version of a 175 to good effect on the twisty Daytona Speedway infield course, hounding two factory Honda 4-cylinders into submission on his way to a dominating win at the US GP. Thomas, impressed by his bike's sandcast engine cases, roller-bearing bottom end and needle-bearing gearbox, campaigned it to 26 wins during the season. By now, family bridges were mended and Motobi had been reabsorbed into the Benelli empire, but financial times turned tough and in 1970 the race shop was closed. Zanzani, an early adopter of disc brakes, opened his own machine shop in Pesaro and developed a plasma iron spray that could be applied to aluminum brake rotors, giving good performance and light weight. Machines with Zanzani rotors took 24 GP world championships between 1978-92. By popular demand, he also continued assembling limited-production Motobi-based racers.

This particular bike was raced up until about 10 years ago. It features in a genuine Zanzani frame many Zanzani upgraded components including a high compression o-ring head, special piston and rings, peened and polished race rockers, competition pushrods, balanced and lightened crank and connecting rod, and flywheel plus straight-cut

35mm pumper carb with a custom intake. See also the optical ignition, modern Scitsu racing tachometer, Ceriani 35mm GP race front end with Grimeca front brakes with replica Amadorro 4-leading shoe brakes, Works Performance shocks, very rare shoulder-less sand-cast Akront rims, original Tomaselli quick turn GP throttle and Condor gold series clip-on handlebars. Finally, there's the beautiful Zanzani bodywork.

This lovely example – originally built by a meticulous tuner/racer from whom money was no object - comes with almost 100 pounds of spare motor parts.