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History
Benelli was established in Pesaro, Italy, in 1911. Teresa
Benelli, a widow, sank all of the family capital into the business in the hope
that it would offer stable work for her six sons: Giuseppe, Giovanni,
Francesco, Filippo, Domenico and Antonio ("Tonino").
In the beginning, it was just the Benelli Garage, which repaired cars and
motorcycles, but was already able to produce all of the spare parts needed for
repairs.
In 1920 the company built its first complete engine in-house, a
single-cylinder two-stroke 75 cc model, immediately adapted to a bicycle
frame. A year later in 1921, Benelli built its first motorcycle with its OWN
engine which had by then become a 98 cc model.
Two years after that, using a version specially designed for competitions,
Tonino the "terrible" took to the track. He displayed an extraordinary natural
talent as a rider and embarked on a very successful career which confirmed the
company's exceptional capacity for development and production.
Riding a Benelli 175, Tonino Benelli won four Italian championship titles
in five years: in 1927, 1928 and 1930 with the single overhead camshaft
version, and in 1931 with the double overhead camshaft version.
Unfortunately, a bad crash during a race in 1932 cut short his brilliant
career and on 27 September 1937 Tonino died following a "silly" road accident.
As World war 2 loomed, the Benelli company debuted their four-cylinder
supercharged 250cc racing bike. This was intended to compete in the 1940
season, building on Benelli's success in the 1939 Isle of Man TT Lightweight
250 cc race. With the start of the war, the Benelli 4 was limited to
competition in a handful of Italian domestic races.
Beyond World War 2
Wartime destruction caused Benelli to remain out of production
until 1949. When production resumed, designs were still largely based on those
of the pre-war period. During 1949, Guiseppe Benelli left the family concern
to found the Motobi marque.
By 1951 Benelli was offering a range consisting of 98cc and 125cc lightweights
(the Leoncino or lion cub) and 350cc and 500cc singles. The Leoncino was
available in both two-stroke and four-stroke forms. The need for cheap
transport in post-war Italy meant that these lightweight models became
immensely successful . Similar models were offered by Moto Guzzi, Ducati and
Laverda, and the same economic conditions led to the growth in popularity of
Vespa and Lambretta scooters.
In 1962, Benelli and Motobi produced around 300 motorcycles a day and had 550
employees.
The de Tomaso years
Towards the end of the 1960s, the arrival of Japanese
manufacturers caused a crisis in the European motorcycle industry. The
original Benelli company was heavily involved in the American motorcycle
market, selling motorcycles under 350cc through Montgomery-Ward. The advent of
competition from Japan lead to Benelli products (still largely of single
cylinder pushrod design) losing popularity as they were perceived as
old-fashioned in comparison to Hondas of the era which sported overhead cam
engines with electric starters, in much the same way as the British Motorcycle
industry was affected in the larger capacity sector.
Benelli changed ownership but despite its continued innovations in the
motorcycle sector - for example, the incredible in-line six-cylinder engines
introduced in the late-70s - it was still losing important market segments,
overwhelmed by Japanese competition. This led to a temporary break in
production.
Renaissance
In 1989 there was hope of a revival with the backing of
Pesaro-based manufacturer Giancarlo Selci. But the time still wasn't right for
a real comeback.
In 1995 revival of the brand with the glorious history became a real
possibility when Andrea Merloni took charge. Results were fast in coming with
the launch of the marvellous Tornado 900 Tre super sport bike in 2002 and the
current launch of the TNT, the explosive roadster.
Benelli is now part of motor Group Qianjiang, which is a corporation located
in southeast China at Wenling, 480 km from Shanghai, whose 14,000-plus
workforce produces over 1,200,000 powered two-wheelers each year, as well as
more than two million engines, in an ultra modern city-sized factory occupying
670,000 m˛ of covered space and equipped with sophisticated machine tools
imported from Germany, Italy and the U.S. |
