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The   "Benelli"  marque

The Benelli frim was founded in 1911 near Persaro Italy by the six brothers Benelli. Soon the achieved fame with their extremely fast racing motorcycles. Toninio Benelli himself as rider was in the late 20'ties four times Italian champion in the famous 175cc class. There where also many other riders who brought fame to the Benelli compagny. Some of these famous names are, Brusi (Italian champ 175cc 1929, Ted Mellors ( winner of the Lightweight TT Man 1939), Dario Ambrosini (world champion 250cc 1950), Leopoldo Taterini (winner Giro d’Italia), Tarquino Provini, Kel Carruthers (world champion 250cc 1969), Renzo Pasolini, Walter Villa and many more..     Benelli build also many streetbikes, Prior W.W. 2 these where single cylinders, from 175cc, 250cc and 500cc, following W.W. 2 the factory was rebuild and resumed with the small two stroke bikes, named "Letzia" 98cc, "Leoncino" 125cc. In de mid 50's came the new four-stroke bikes named "Leonessa"250cc twin, "Leoncino" 125 single wre introduced.
In 1948 brother Guisseppe grounded his own marque "Moto B" what later became "MotoBi" from this factory came the famous powerfull egg engine. The frim "Motobi" was acquired in 1962 by the Benelli family following Guissepe's death and Benelli produced the egg engine in differend sizes till 1972.
In the late 60's Benelli introduced a new twin the "Tornado" but it was not until 1972 that the first "Tornado" came out af Italy. The year 1971 also found the Benelli factory in financial trouble and the factory had to sell out to Alesandro de Tomaso. He spend a lot of money in the factory and in the end of 1972 he shocked the world with the first six cylinder bike for road use "The 750 Sei". Based on this engine he will build a hole range off four and sixcylinders. The last motorcycles tahat Benelli build  under direction of De Tomaso was the Jarno 125 in 1986.  In 1989 the factory was sold to the frim Selci, they only build 50cc’s with the name Scooty and Devil. In 1996 they sold the factory to Andrea Merloni j.r.    Merloni want give Benelli his name back in the motorcycle world. In 1997 Merloni came with his first scooter the 491, It was followed in quick succession by the 491 GT, 491 Superbike, 491 Army, K2 , K2 Namur, Pepe all these bikes having 50cc engines. Then, in 1998 he came out with the first motor scooter, witch was called the VELVET and available in 125, 150 and 250cc versions. On the scooter front he present a hole new design in 1999, this one being called the "ADIVA" a scooter with a roof available in 125 and 150cc four stroke versions. Trough this activity, he hoped to generate enough money to allow him to realize his dream, a "Benelli Superbike".  And he did !!  On 21 July 1999 he presents LIVE on the internet the new "BENELLI TORNADO 900 TRE". This bike will be ready for sale in 2001, Merloni also plans to have the "WSB Tornado Racer"ready for the 2001 season.
That Merloni is deeply invold with his race project , shows the following, as Ex-Superbike driver he can't take the challange to test the bike himself. In Dec. 1999 he test (drove) the new Tornado racer at the Misano racetrack in Italy. He want to know where he is spending his money to.
The latest news on the Tornado racer is that the output now is getting up to 164 PK, that's not enough for the Worlds series, but they work very hard and we will see the results on the end of 2000. Later up to date news on the Tornado raceproject, you can find it on this web-site. 

Copyright.  Paul Hendricksen and Kevin Johnson