Moraco-Droulhiole 354 development racer
With Phil Aynsley
Every so often a bike comes along that is completely unknown to me (and I would hazard, to most). The Moraco-Droulhiole is one of those.
Frenchman Bernard Droulhiole patented his monocoque chassis (although he referred to it as “polycoque”) around 1970 and it was soon used by the Maingret brothers to house a slightly enlarged (354 cc) Yamaha TZ350 motor as their entry into the 500 cc GP class.
In 1974 their riders were Patrick Pons and Christian Bourgeois. Pons placed fourth at Spa for the team’s best result. Bourgeois did finish third at the French GP in the 350 race – presumably not with the 354 cc motor fitted!
The chassis weighed just 7.35 kg with the bike’s dry weight being 103 kg, while power was 64 hp at 10,000 rpm.
This bike was only raced four times, being mainly used as a development machine. Four other bikes still exist of the six made in total.
