The Benelli 650 Tornado, maybe not in your collection yet, but in the March issue of Auto Motor Klassiek.
Already fossil at his presentation
Beautiful, thoughtfully designed and entirely for sale according to Italian tradition years after its introduction. And that was the blow to him. Because the era of the 650 cc pushrod twins was really over in 1970. And the fact that the company had fallen into financial difficulties entirely according to the best Italian customs also did not help.
The carefully built - only ten were made in one day - Benelli's were all subjected to a serious test drive before they went to the dealer / customer.
Those customers enjoyed the driving behavior, the - for a push rod winch - high speed and the sound. The vibrations were significantly less inspiring while at Benelli they had done just about everything by using a whole sheet of anti-vibration rubber.
The time that the famous Argentinean big capitalist Alessandro de Tomaso (about the spelling of that name but being communized) was actually the start of a rollercoaster effect on takeovers, relaunches and rebirths. In 1989, Benelli was sold to Giancarlo Selci, a manufacturer of woodworking machines, who was mainly interested in the new plant in Pesaro. For tax-technical reasons, 50cc models were hardly ever built, but Benelli was actually dead. In February 1996 the rights to the Benelli name were bought by Andrea Merloni, who again built a new factory in Pesaro. For the time being, scooters were built to lay a financial foundation for larger motorcycle plans. Because Italians have never lacked major plans.
In 2005 the name Benelli was taken over by the Chinese Quianjiang Group. The plan was to launch a new model line from 2010 as Benelli QJ.
In 2011, the Benelli company celebrated its 100 anniversary.
But for now it doesn't look like the 650 Tornado will be back in production, no matter how 'in' retro 'it is at the moment.
