Parilla 175 Gran Sport
With Phil Aynsley
One of the most successful “production racers” to come out of Italy was the Parilla 175 Gran Sport, seen here as a 1959 model. Giovanni Parrilla went into the motorcycle business in 1946 with two new race bikes penned by Giuseppe Saimaggi.
The first, a bevel-driven SOHC, was raced in late ’46 then officially launched at the ’47 Milan Show. The DOHC version soon followed and both bikes had their successes (the DOHC bike winning its class in the 1950 Milano-Taranto) helping to establish the brand.
Saimaggi, together with Alfredo Bianchi, then created the famous high-cam engine which was first seen in the 1952 175cc Fox road bike. The camshaft was located at the top of a tower on the left hand side of the motor and driven by a chain. Very short pushrods then operated the rockers. The motor was later enlarged to 200, then 250cc with most of the later being exported to the US (some in the Wildcat) – 1963 Moto Parilla 250 Wildcat | 114kg | 26hp.
The slightly higher tuned Fox Sport made 14 hp and the 175 Grand Sport/MSDS (Macchina Sport Derivato dalla Serie) production racer (together with the 250GS) was the top of the line model that remained competitive until factory closed in 1967. Indeed American racer Ron Grant finished second on a 250GS in the 1964 US GP.
A small interesting point is that as a great fan of the Manx Norton, Giovanni Parrilla paid homage to it by using the same silver/black colour scheme for his factory racers.
