Who did Honda give the engine to?

I'm trying to get the details of this story from a year or two back:

As I recall some Italian company needed an engine for one of their race
bikes and didn't have one. Having asked everyone, they asked Honda
(expecting nothing) and had an engine delivered almost immediately. Turns
out, this company had been helpful to Soichiro Honda back in the 50's and
Honda was repaying the favour.

Some of the details might not be correct, but that's the gist of it.

Anyone got a link or some more details?

Cheers Manning

 

As Hatz said, Mondial. It's the VTR-SP1 engine. In standard road trim I
believe.

 

The company is Mondial, #4 (or is it 5; I can think of Benelli, MV, and
Laverda off the top of my head... anybody know of moves to do a Reanimator
job on Moto Morini, say?) in the line of "illustrious" old-timey Italian
bike marques which were driven into the ground by some form of
self-inflicted ineptitude or other, had the rights to the company name
bought by someone completely unrelated to the original firm, and which are
now attempting a comeback courtesy of an overpriced, overhyped ("look at the
length of_our_spec-sheet") tour-de-force sportsbike which, according to some
o/s tests I've read (toe to toe against the Mille, the 998 and the Tornado
in one of them), doesn't quite ride like the sum of its parts.

The bike is the Piega. It has a carbon-fibre swingarm, glitchy EFI, and,
apparently, build quality to rival the Honda NSR150...

The engine is the V-twin from the SP-1/2, as also used in the "new" Vincent.

Like all products attempting to bootstrap themselves to success through
claims of exclusivity and a misty-eyed connection to a past the marketing
department is gambling nobody accurately remembers as justification for a
completely unrealistic pricetag, I wish the grave-robbing bastards speedy
bankruptcy.

 

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGH
I read about this in 2 wheels earlier this year
but threw out the copy now!
this was the same company that assisted hinda when they were starting
out and honda returned the favour.
*why does velocette stick out like sore thumb*
That's not the company though.
sorry manning you have started my obsession for all things trivial.
Bastard!
Now I won't sleep.

 

Bastard Hatz it was Mondial.
Now I can sleep.

 

I'm the same - I knew the outline of the story but could summon up the
details and it was driving me crazy. It's a cool story though, one of my
favourites. And it didn't hurt Honda's PR none.

Cheers Manning

 

Mondial

CDIHL

 

People still buy 2 wheels.

 

Ducati used a honda engine in one of their race reps. I'll have a dig for
you.

Hammo

 

It was the VTR SP road engine for the new Mondial.

Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy that story!

 

Mondial as has already been posted, detail was they let Soichiro Honda have a
look at their race bike engine when he was starting out in racing and they were
winning (now there's a bit of sportsmanship that wouldn't happen today) and when
they revived Mondial honda returned the favour by allowing them to use the VTR
SP2 motor in the Piega - nice looking bike - it's a road bike that may be
homologated for Superbikes though, not a race bike.

I've got the full story in a copy of TW here if you want to borrow it - I'm only
a couple of suburbs up the road in Balmain.

JL

 

Thanks, based on the info provided by IK I sourced the original info.

Here's the original story as written by Bear Thoeming, excerpted from
Australian Road Rider.

*********************

Two years ago Suzuki, at very short notice, cancelled an agreement to supply
Mondial with engines for its brand-new bike, the Piega. The reasons aren't
clear but they seem to have had something to do with showing the bike at the
Munich motorcycle show INTERMOT and perhaps stealing Suzuki's thunder.
According to Mondial boss Roberto Ziletti, anyway.

Ziletti, who'd decided that developing Mondial's own three-cylinder engine
was simply too expensive, was - to put it mildly - at a loss. He had a bike
ready for the Munich show about a fortnight away but he didn't have either
an engine or any way of sourcing one. Or so he thought.

What Ziletti didn't know was that, nearly 50 years before, a relatively
unknown Japanese motorcycle designer had come knocking on the door of
Mondial, then one of Italy's most respected and race-proven bike
manufacturers. He told the Bonselli family, who owned Mondial then, that he
wanted his own company to get into Grand Prix racing, but didn't know enough
about it. He needed help.

The Italians lent him a Mondial race bike on which to base his own racers,
just like that. Two years ago, that act of kindness paid off big time. The
Japanese designer, you see, was Soichiro Honda. When the near-desperate
Ziletti (who didn't even know that story about Mr Honda) approached a friend
at the Honda race team with his problem, he didn't really expect any help.
After all, Honda - unlike Yamaha, Suzuki and most of the Italians - doesn't
sell its motorcycle engines to other manufacturers.

Ziletti was therefore staggered when, three or four days later, Honda
offered him the SP-1 engine for his Piega. Just like that. As a thank-you
for an act of kindness 50 years before. Restores your faith in the
motorcycle industry, that does. A bit.

********************

 

As others have already answered this I'll throw another spin on the Italian
/ Japanese relationship during the earlier GP years. After the untimely
death of 250 riders Jarno Saarinen (Yamaha) and Renzo Pasolini (Aeromachi /
Harley Davidson) in the 1973 Monza GP both Yamaha and Harley teams refused
to accept the farcical official accounts of the cause of the deadly crash
(Italian officials insisted that one or both motorcycles had seized) and by
mutual consent allowed each other's workshops to examine the others' bikes.
In both cases no evidence of seizure was found though as an interesting
aside the Harley was found to be running Yamaha pistons.

I find it difficult to believe that to opposing teams would so willingly and
openly co-operate were a similar incident to occur in today's GP circus.
Also unlike today the Yamaha factory team withdrew from competition for the
remainder of the 1973 season.

Oh and incidentally for those who were unfamiliar the cause of the 1973
crash was found to have been oil that was leaked from one of the 350cc bikes
in the previous race. A couple of journalists who tried to bring this to
the attention of track marshals before the 250 race were physically
threatened and this information was not acted on.
--
Deevo

Geraldton
WA, The Nanny State (® Corks)
www.wn.com.au/mckenzie

 

Walter Vila was the culprit as far as I'm aware.
He was lambasted for continuing and procuring a finish when he should've pulled out.

 

Interesting story - thanks for that.

Manning

 

pulled out.

It was his bike that caused the problem and he actually pitted but was told
by his pit crew to go out again and get some points.
--
Deevo

Geraldton
WA, The Nanny State (® Corks)
www.wn.com.au/mckenzie

 

So that'd be "**** off grave-robbing bitch" then? ;-)


BTH

 

Pretty much, yes... if they're so keen to build bikes, let them come up with
their own name...

 

Yup, some do. I hear some others still ride bikes, even...

....with your attitude, 'Gus, if you ever end up in a plane crash on a desert
island, I swear you'd be the first the other survivors vote to club over the
head and eat; just to stop you bitching.
now!

 

But but but that can't be right! Honda are a pack of money hungry
granny raping bastards! Just ask Hatz!

Cheers



-------------
Kevin Gleeson
Technical Director
Blue Rocket Productions
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
www.blue-rocket.com.au