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A household name among motorcyclists thanks to its heroic achievement of producing the most highly developed and successful overhead-valve racing single ever, Aermacchi was a relative latecomer to motorcycle manufacture, building its first machine in the late 1940s and the first of its trademark, horizontally-mounted, four-stroke singles - the 175cc Chimera - in 1956. The 'enclosed' Chimera was soon joined by more conventionally styled 175cc and 250cc machines, the racing versions of which were christened Ala d'Oro (Golden Wing). Alberto Pagani's 9th place on the 250's Dutch TT debut in 1960 demonstrated the bike's potential, which was confirmed the following week when Pagani finished 5th at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The need for more power led to short-stroke engine dimensions (of 72x61mm) being adopted on the 250 for 1964, by which time a 350cc version had appeared. With increased power came increasing unreliability, necessitating a re-design for 1966 when larger flywheels, modified piston and connecting rod, dry clutch and wider gears were among improvements introduced. The works concentrated on developing its new 250 two-stroke twin from the late 1960s onwards, but before then had introduced a bob-weight crankshaft, external flywheel and new crankcases with an extra main bearing on its four-stroke single. Although the pushrod Aermacchi never won a World Championship race, it did achieve a number of 2nd places, Alan Barnett's in the 1970 Junior TT being one of the most memorable. Despite a lack of ultimate success in Grands Prix, the Aermacchi single was outstandingly successful at national level and today, having benefited from another three decades of development, remains a competitive force in historic motorcycle racing.

At time of cataloguing it had not been possible to determine the engine capacity of this restored Aermacchi racer. A frame number was not located (our vendor refers to '141132'); likewise the engine number (our vendor refers to 'A-A 106').

Following a period of inactivity, this motorcycle will require recommissioning and/or restoration to a greater or lesser extent before returning to the road and thus is sold strictly as viewed. Prospective purchasers should satisfy themselves with regard to this motorcycle's completeness, history, authenticity, originality and mechanical condition prior to bidding.

Key not required