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Caught: Gilera 600 Super Sport

Stand of the rings

After an eight-year break, the Italian brand with the rings in its logo is finally bringing a motorcycle again: the Gilera 600 Super Sport, now caught during secret test drives on an Italian racetrack.

Uno, due, tre: after MV Agusta and Benelli, Gilera is now returning as the third traditional Italian manufacturer. Unlike MV and Benelli, the brand has never completely disappeared from the market since it was founded in 1909, but in the last eight years it has only released new scooters. Now the bosses of the parent company Piaggio have changed their strategy. Gilera is supposed to get back into the motorcycles. And how: The Italians jump right into the middle of the hard-fought segment of the sporty 600s.
A daring step that MOTORRAD announced back in March (issue 7/2001). And as the secretly taken photos prove, the editorial prophets were not only spot on in terms of optics, but also in terms of the drive: The inline four-cylinder of the new Gilera comes from the Suzuki GSX-R 600 and is supposed to bring sturdy 118 horses. The Gilera developers put the injection engine in a light metal bridge frame which, according to MOTORRAD information, also contains a few smaller titanium elements. Technically unique in the 600 class: the upside-down fork, but the 17-inch wheels are mandatory. The brake system consists of 320 millimeter discs with four-piston calipers. From the front, the Super Sport is reminiscent of the Honda VTR SP-1 with the Ram Air inlet between the narrow headlights, but the designers also tried to create an Italian outfit, from the narrow front view to the high rear, under which actually even the silencer would have to fit. The caught Gilera was wearing it on the right side, but not all test days are evening. It is possible that the developers will lend a hand again.
The 600 will be on the market next spring, estimated price: around 20,000 marks. But it is only the first step on the way to the return of the brand with the double ring, which was taken over by the scooter giant Piaggio in 1969. At the company’s headquarters in Potendera, Tuscany, the developers are already working flat out on their own engine. In the best Italian tradition, this is a V-twin cylinder. It will initially be available in two versions: as an 800 and a 1000, the latter with two overhead camshafts and 120 hp.
D.he group always has the financial strength to build these engines and their motorcycles. Because the managers of the Morgan Grenfell Group, a fund subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, have been in power there since the end of 1999. They have big plans with Piaggio / Gilera: The company should become so big that it can seriously compete with the Japanese , not only in the scooter sector, but also with motorcycles. At the beginning of the year the Spanish two-wheeler manufacturer Derbi was bought and Gilera used the know-how of the Spaniards in racing to send a motorcycle in Gilera colors to the starting line in the World Championship in addition to the Derbi 125cc. Meanwhile, his pilot Manuel Poggiali is leading the World Cup? a first triumph for Gilera. And if the company strategists have their way, it should by no means remain the only one.

Interview with Piaggio managing director Stefano Rosselli del Turco

Piaggio managing director Stefano Rosselli del Turco on the group subsidiary Gilera

Why does Gilera’s first motorcycle after an eight-year break have no in-house engine? That has to do with our company strategy. When we enter a market segment, we want to do it quickly. And just as we sell our scooter motors to the competition, we are not too fond of buying a motor on our part, because it would take too long to develop it ourselves. Why does it have to be a 600 series engine to get Gilera back into the business. Gilera has made a name for herself in sports, and that’s where we want to go again. When it comes to sporty motorcycles, the 600s are the domain of the Japanese, so we believe there is still room for an Italian-style motorcycle. So will the new Gilera also race? We see our sporting commitment parallel to production. At the moment Gilera and our subsidiary Derbi are building scooters and light motorcycles, which is why we are competing in the 125 World Cup. When the 600 hits the market, it could well be that we will enter the Supersport World Championship. What will future Gilera motorcycles look like? The Japanese are the champions these days when it comes to four-cylinder construction. Our future lies more in the two-cylinder, where we can demonstrate European competence.

Quadrophony

Gilera, a word like Donnerhall for fans of historic racing. They automatically associate the glorious triumphs of the four-cylinder in the premier class of Grand Prix racing. In 1950 and 1952 Umberto Masetti won the coveted title, from 1953 to 1955 the legendary Geoff Duke won in succession, and in 1957 Libero Liberati took home the last title for the Italians. The famous four-cylinder lived on, so to speak, at MV Agusta, where Gilera designer Piero Remor moved and created an image of the classic inline four-cylinder, which introduced further titles en suite up to 1965 The tradition of the brand goes back to 1909 when the 22-year-old Racing driver Giuseppe Gilera founded the company in Milan. In 1919 the Arcore plant was established near the famous Monza circuit. Over the years, Gilera has produced utility motorcycles for everyday use on the one hand and models for racing on the other. The first inline four-cylinder was created as early as 1926, which was further developed with a supercharger in 1939 under Dario Serafini, which brought it to the highest title at the time, the European Championship. After the war, Gilera built not only the 500 single-cylinder Saturno and the 250 Nettuno but mainly two-wheelers with 125 to 175 cm³. In 1969, the scooter giant Piaggio took over the brand, stopped motorcycle production in 1993 after one last rebellion with the new Saturno and closed the factory in Arcore. Now Gilera is building on old traditions with the four-cylinder.

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