Parilla Olimpia 125 four-stroke
With Phil Aynsley
Parilla’s newly designed horizontal engine series debuted in 1957 with the fully enclosed Parilla Slughi – Phil shoots a Parilla Slughi at Doffo Winery – using the four-stroke 125 cc version.
Unusually the motor was available in both two and four-stroke OHV configurations (125 cc two-stroke and 98 & 125 cc four-stroke) which were visually indistinguishable. The bikes themselves however were easy to tell apart – the two-strokes were painted blue/cream and the four-strokes red.
With sales of the Slughi failing to meet expectations a more conventional design was soon introduced – the Olimpia in 1960. In the US it was known as the Impala for a brief time. The Olimpia remained in production until 1965.
This is an almost completed restoration of an 1960 125 four-stroke model, with power claimed at 8 hp peaking at 6700 rpm, with a weight of 75 kg. Top speed was 110 km/h.
Giovanni Parrilla built his first motorcycle in 1946, dropping his surname’s second ‘r’ to call the machine a ‘Parilla’. Signor Parrilla owned a shop on the outskirts of Milan specialising in the repair of diesel injector pumps and he also held an agency for Bosch sparking plugs.
