Gilera: the Italian four-cylinder that ruled before MV Agusta

Brand historyGilera500 Grand Prix racing in the 1950s

Founded in 1909 by Giuseppe Gilera and based at Arcore, the Italian marque ruled the premier class before MV Agusta. Its weapon: a 500 cm³ four-cylinder inherited from the Rondine project, supercharged and credited with 80 hp at 9,000 rpm before the war, redrawn as a normally aspirated version by Piero Remor in 1948. Six world crowns in eight seasons followed: Umberto Masetti in 1950 and 1952, Geoff Duke in 1953, 1954 and 1955, Libero Liberati in 1957. On 26 September 1957, Gilera, Moto Guzzi and Mondial walked away from Grand Prix racing. Piaggio bought the marque in 1969.

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From Zelo Buon Persico to Arcore: the birth of a dynasty

Before the screaming four-cylinders and the Monza grandstands, there was a twenty-two-year-old lad bent over a workbench. Giuseppe Gilera, born Gellera on 21 December 1887 in Zelo Buon Persico, in the Lombard countryside, put together his first machine in 1909 : the VT 317, a 317 cm³ overhead-valve single. Two years later, he and his brother Luigi opened an engineering workshop in Milan.

The company moved to Arcore, north-east of Milan, as early as 1916, first housed in the Bestetti joinery workshops. In 1923, the permanent factory went up on via Cesare Battisti: it would be the marque's home until 1993. Arcore became a name that counted in Italian industry, just as Mandello del Lario did for Moto Guzzi or Pesaro for Benelli. In the 1930s, Gilera was selling rugged singles, settling in for good in the country's industrial landscape, and starting to see racing as the best advertising billboard of all.

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Rondine: the four-cylinder that fell out of aviation

The engine that would build the legend was not born at Gilera. It goes back to the 1920s and to two engineers based in Rome, Carlo Gianini and Piero Remor, who dreamed up an inline four-cylinder for racing. The project passed through the OPRA workshop, then landed with an aero-engine maker, CNA (Compagnia Nazionale Aeronautica), owned by Count Giovanni Bonmartini. There it took its bird name: Rondine, the swallow.

The result was a piece of pure engineering. A block of 492 cm³ (52 × 58 mm), four cylinders tilted forward at 60 degrees, twin overhead camshafts, water cooling and, above all, a Roots supercharger : in its pre-war form, the Rondine claimed 80 hp at 9,000 rpm, a staggering figure for a 500 of the day. Gilera bought the project around 1935.

The proof came quickly. On 21 October 1937, on the Bergamo-Brescia motorway, Piero Taruffi — rider and head of the marque's racing department — launched a fully faired Rondine, whose bodywork he had drawn himself, and broke the outright world speed record at 274.181 km/h. A figure that put the Italian machine above everyone else… for five weeks, until Ernst Henne's BMW took the record back on 28 November.

The war came and went, and with it the rules changed: supercharging was banned in competition. Remor went back to the drawing board and in 1948 delivered a transverse four-cylinder, normally aspirated and air-cooled, simpler and lighter — around 125 kg for the complete machine and 55 hp to begin with. That is the machine that would write history.

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Six world crowns in eight seasons

When the FIM created the world championship in 1949, the fight was at first between the British singles and the Italian fours. Gilera lost the opening round, but hit back the very next year: in 1950, Umberto Masetti pipped Geoff Duke, then on a Norton, by a single point (28 to 27). Masetti did it again in 1952, with 28 points ahead of Leslie Graham's 25 on MV Agusta.

The final tally is clear and verifiable: six 500 world titles in eight seasons, from 1950 to 1957. Masetti in 1950 and 1952, Geoff Duke in 1953, 1954 and 1955, Libero Liberati in 1957. Over that period, no manufacturer did better in the premier class — and it is worth remembering that the manufacturers' title was not even awarded in 1954, the FIM being in open conflict with the makers over the calendar and over the very existence of the riders' championship.

🏍️ The Arcore four, its silver bodywork and its megaphone exhaust are part of the most recognisable motorcycle imagery there is: put it back on your walls with our motorcycle posters and prints.

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Geoff Duke, the Briton who made Italy win

Gilera's story is inseparable from a man from Lancashire. Geoff Duke, born in St Helens, was already a triple world champion on Norton — 350 in 1951 and 1952, 500 in 1951 — when, in 1953, he made the choice that scandalised England: signing for the Italian firm Gilera. There he found an engine far more powerful than the Norton single, but a stubborn chassis, which he helped to tame.

The result was beyond dispute: three consecutive 500 titles, in 1953, 1954 and 1955. The 1954 season was a demonstration — 40 points for Duke against 20 for Ray Amm on Norton. Duke became an international name, one of the first motorcycle riders to be a star beyond the paddock, in line with the story told by thehistory of the world championship.

Then it all came off the rails. At the Dutch Grand Prix of 1955, at theAssencircuit, the privateers went on strike to demand better starting money. Duke, the star of the field, publicly backed them. The FIM suspended him for six months — a punishment that cut into the start of his 1956 season and buried his chances of a fourth title in a row. He would never quite find the same level again: in 1957 he finished only fourth in the 500 world championship with 10 points.

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1957: the peak, then the axe

The 1957 season was the finest and the last. Gilera fielded a formidable line-up and put two men on the final podium: Libero Liberati, the Umbrian from Terni nicknamed the “ Cavaliere d'acciaio ”, 500 world champion with 32 points, ahead of the Scot Bob McIntyre (20 points, also on a Gilera) and John Surtees on MV Agusta (17 points). Liberati won in Germany, in Belgium, in Ulster and at Monza. The four was by then credited with more than 70 hp at 10,500 rpm and with nearly 260 km/h with its full dustbin fairing — a type of bodywork the FIM would ban from 1958.

The high point was the Isle of Man. In June 1957, for the fiftieth anniversary of the Tourist Trophy, the Senior TT was run over eight laps instead of seven. Bob McIntyre, on a Gilera, became the first man to lap the Mountain Course at more than 100 mph (161 km/h average), set a fastest lap of 101.12 mph and led the race from start to finish. A symbolic barrier had fallen.

Three months later, a thunderclap. On 26 September 1957, Gilera, Moto Guzzi and FB Mondial jointly announced their withdrawal from Grand Prix racing from 1958. The statement — which went down in history as the “ patto di astensione ” — cited performance that had become dangerous for riders and the absence of foreign rivals, which drained their wins of meaning. Behind the scenes, the arithmetic was harsher: racing budgets had gone mad just as motorcycle sales were collapsing, the small car beginning to replace the two-wheeler in Italian households. And a bereavement weighed on the family firm: Ferruccio Gilera, Giuseppe's son and designated heir, had died on 9 October 1956 in Argentina, aged 26.

MV Agusta was party to that agreement between the Italian manufacturers. It pulled out at the very moment it was made public. Count Domenico Agusta, backed by his helicopter group, kept on racing — alone against an emptied field. The result: seventeen consecutive 500 titles for MV, from 1958 to 1974, with Surtees, Mike Hailwood, then Giacomo Agostini. The throne Gilera left of its own free will was taken by someone else for twenty years.

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After the Grands Prix: Scuderia Duke, Caldarella and Piaggio

The fours were not destroyed. They slept at Arcore, and came out again twice. In 1963, Geoff Duke set up his own outfit, the Scuderia Duke, and entered Derek Minter and John Hartle on the 1957 Gileras against Hailwood's MVs. The machines were six years old and the gap had widened, but they still made a decent showing.

In 1964, it was an Argentinian who picked up the torch: Benedicto Caldarella, winner of the 500 Argentine Grand Prix in 1962 on a Matchless, was handed a 1957 Gilera straight out of the factory. At the United States Grand Prix, at Daytona, he went wheel to wheel with Hailwood until a gearbox down to fourth gear alone put him out. He took his revenge at Monza, at the Nations Grand Prix, with a second place behind Hailwood and the fastest lap of the race. It was the last great feat of arms of the Arcore four.

For the company, what followed was greyer. Sales crumbled all through the 1960s, cash grew tight, and in 1969 the Piaggio group — already master of the Vespa — took control of Gilera. Giuseppe Gilera died on 20 November 1971 at Arcore, aged 83. The historic factory closed in 1993, with production moving to Pontedera. The marque would survive a few more decades on scooters and small-capacity machines before fading out of the catalogue.

🏍️ A four-cylinder from 1957 doesn't park in a garage: you collect it in small scale, in our model motorcyclessection.

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Summary table

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FAQ — Frequently asked questions

• How many 500 cm³ world titles did Gilera win?
  Six, in eight seasons: Umberto Masetti in 1950 and 1952, Geoff Duke in 1953, 1954 and 1955, and Libero Liberati in 1957.
• How many titles did Geoff Duke win on a Gilera?
  Three, all in 500 cm³ and consecutive: 1953, 1954 and 1955. His three other world crowns (350 in 1951 and 1952, 500 in 1951) were taken on Norton.
• Why did Gilera withdraw from Grand Prix racing in 1957?
  On 26 September 1957, Gilera, Moto Guzzi and FB Mondial jointly announced their withdrawal from 1958, in an agreement that remains famous as the “patto di astensione”. The statement cited performance that had become dangerous and the absence of foreign rivals; in practice, racing budgets were soaring just as motorcycle sales were collapsing. MV Agusta, associated with that agreement between the Italian manufacturers, pulled out at the moment it was made public and raced alone afterwards.
• Where does Gilera's four-cylinder engine come from?
  From the Rondine project, an inline four-cylinder designed by Carlo Gianini and Piero Remor, then developed by the aero-engine maker CNA. Gilera bought it around 1935. Supercharged and water-cooled, it gave 80 hp at 9,000 rpm; after the war Remor redrew it as a normally aspirated, air-cooled version, unveiled in 1948.
• When was Gilera bought by Piaggio?
  In 1969. Weakened by the collapse in sales during the 1960s, the marque passed under the control of the Piaggio group. The historic Arcore factory closed in 1993, with production transferred to Pontedera.

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