Roadside Attraction + Forgotten Classic: The Moto Guzzi Museum and the Moto Guzzi V8

Lucky visitors to the Moto Guzzi Museum in Mandello del Lario (on Lake Como, in case you need another enticement) are greeted by a marble sculpture and side elevation of a motorcycle headed for the checkered flag in Plaza Leonardo da Vinci. Engineer Carlo Guzzi had built a motorcycle shortly after World War I, and founded the oldest surviving European motorcycle maker in continuous production, Moto Guzzi, with partners Giorgio and Angelo Parodi early in 1921. Racing was important from the beginning; Moto Guzzi won its first European title at Monza in 1924. Back to that racer headed for the checkered flag up there; that looks like an engine with four overhead cams, doesn't it?

Well, it's a water-cooled 500cc V8 designed for GP racing by Giulio Carcano, and it was raced by the Moto Guzzi team from 1955 to 1957.  One way to think about this engine with its 4 overhead cams is that it resembles the Maserati Ghibli V8 of a decade later, except that its entire displacement would fit into one of the Maserati's cylinders, with space left over.  The Otto, as it was also called, set an official speed record of 171 mph 2 decades before that speed was again achieved in a motorcycle GP.  The engine featured a Dell'Orto carburetor for each cylinder, weighed 99 lb. in a 326 lb. bike, and made 78 hp at 12,000 rpm. The Moto Guzzi V8 below is one of 80 vehicles on display at the museum, and one of only two V8 racers built. 

About that checkered flag part of the mural, though, we have to report that while blindingly fast, the Otto never won a GP race. There were reliability problems, and because chassis design had not caught up to that advanced engine (brakes were still drums, for example), some racers declined to ride it in GP races.  Still, when it retired from decades of racing at the end of 1957, Moto Guzzi had collected over 3,300 race wins, and 14 world titles. By 1963, Stanguellini* decided that a mid-engined, four-wheeled speed record car would be a more stable format for the Guzzi V8, and Franco Scaglioni designed an aerodynamic shell over the tubular Stanguellini chassis for the Colibri (Italian for hummingbird) below. The body was built by Carrozzeria Gransport, of later Cobra Daytona fame. Somehow the Otto engine never arrived for installation, and the car made do with a 250cc Moto Guzzi single that made 29hp at 8,400 rpm.  That was enough, though, for the little streamliner with its 5-speed chain drive and front disc brakes to set half a dozen international speed records at Monza in fall of 1963. To see it, though, you'll need to visit the Stanguellini Museum...

There are plenty of other exhibits to take in at the Moto Guzzi Museum, including the landmark V7 Record below.  A V7 Record set 19 speed records at Monza back in 1969.  The V7 engine tooks its name from its displacement.  It originally appeared in 1966 as an air-cooled 700 cc V-twin with 90 degrees between cylinders and shaft drive, and starting in 1967 engineer Lino Tonti developed performance versions, with the 748cc V7 Sport capable of 125 mph.  The V-twins had a good reputation for handling, and Moto Guzzi sold ten V7 Police models to the Los Angeles Police Force in 1969; these were reputedly the first motorcycles not of American origin to go to Stateside police forces, and led to other Moto Guzzi police sales in the US.

The collection also highlights many of the models powered for over four decades by Carlo Guzzi's first engine design, with a single horizontal cylinder, single overhead cam, 4-stroke air-cooled configuration, at first in 500cc displacement.  That title-winning 1924 racer had 4 valves for its thumping single cylinder.  Until 1934, each engine carried the signature of the mechanic who had assembled it...

The museum collection includes an early, streamlined speed record bike, as well as a vast trove of scale models and miniatures... 

…along with photos, literature, and other memorabilia.

Carlo Guzzi was born in 1889, died in 1964 and lived long enough to see a Moto Guzzi be the first motorcycle to reach the Arctic Circle (1928), to become Italy's largest motorcycle maker (1934), build the first wind tunnel for motorcycle design (1954), and to see its host city call itself La Citta Della Moto Guzzi (ages ago).  The stone sculpture in our first image* came later, in 2011, and was produced by sculptor Ettore Gambioli and architect Paolo Gambelli.  Three years later, the Discovery Channel named the Moto Guzzi V8 one of the ten greatest motorcycles of all time.

*Footnote:  For a look at Stanguellini cars not powered by Moto Guzzi, see "The Etceterini Files Part 5—Chasing a Mirage: the Last Stanguellini", posted here on March 21, 2016.

*Photo Credits:
All photos were generously supplied by longtime reader and contributor Keith Carlson, except for the 2nd, 3rd & 4th from the top (Wikimedia), and the 5th & 6th (piaggiogroup.com).  For Keith's shots of Monterey Car Week, see "Monterey Car Week 2023:  Auctions, Pebble Beach Concours, and a Day at the Races", posted here on August 31, 2023.