Benelli Tornado 900 Tre, with the roar of a Ferrari and the radiator in the ass

On July 21, 1999, Benelli rose from its ashes thanks to a passionate Italian industrialist, relaunching the brand with a daring and revolutionary model that caused a sensation, the Benelli Tornado 900 Tre, and which just this year celebrates two decades since it began. to manufacture.

It is not very common for an industrialist dedicated to manufacturing household appliances to recreate and revive a motorcycle brand. Well, this was the birthplace of the Benelli Tornado 900 Tre, the company of the billionaire Andrea Merloni – 31 years old at the time -, which among other brands manufactured the famous Indesit appliances. Thus, between stoves, literally, one of the most controversial motorcycles of the late twentieth century was born.

Coming out on July 21, 1999 at Villa Merloni, at a high society party, their plans were revealed: in 2001 they would start manufacturing (it was a year later) and they would participate in the SBK World Championship with the pilot Australian Peter Goddard (in 2001 and 2002 without mention results).

Merloni spent a lot of money promoting the Tornado, giving away posters that he sent to anyone who requested them through the official website -I still have mine-, and the official presentation was broadcast on the Internet, something unusual at that time.

Benelli was resurrected in 1999 thanks to millionaire Andrea Merloni, creating an entirely new bike from scratch.

The Benelli Tornado was conceived from scratch, without being based on any other motorcycle. The heart of the Tornado is its transverse inline three-cylinder engine -4T, LC, 12V, IE- created by Ricardo Rosa, a former Ferrari engineer and also involved in the development of the MV Agusta F4.

This configuration was chosen for its narrowness and the large amount of torque it delivers. With the crankshaft set at 120º it had a roar like a Ferrari engine, guttural and aggressive. The reason for its displacement of 900 cc is because at that time that was the displacement limit for three-cylinder motorcycles in the SBK World Championship.

But if this is already notorious, its cooling is even more so, since the radiator was placed under the pilot’s ass! The cooling air was directed through ducts that started from the front, ran along the sides and flowed into the radiator.

To extract the hot air, two large extraction fans were mounted on the tail, becoming one of the most extravagant features of this bike. This detail also allowed the engine to be brought closer to the front wheel, to load more weight in front and to make the bike shorter, which it was.

The Tornado’s three-cylinder engine was created by Ricardo Rosa, a former Ferrari engineer

In the cycle part, the frame was a multi-tubular steel frame with cast aluminum plates in the swingarm anchoring area -asymmetrical double arm cast aluminum, and very oversized-.

The rims were made of light alloy with thin tangential spokes, and the double floating front disc was Brembo Oro, with four-piston opposed calipers. The front suspension was entrusted to a Marzocchi inverted fork with 46 mm bars, multi-adjustable in preload, compression and rebound. The rear shock was gas with a separate bottle, and also multi-adjustable.

The integral fairing was enveloping, with a narrow and low dome, on the sides of which were two enormous openings for cooling. The fairing connects to the tail at the height of the rider’s legs, maintaining an almost “Aero” design line.

The Tornado participated in the WorldSBK with Peter Goddard, without luck

The tail is plump, rounded and houses the pair of fans as we have mentioned. In the very sporty driving position, a pair of semi-handlebars located below the seatpost were placed, and instrumentation with a double analog dial for rev counter and speedometer with a yellow background, as well as a small LCD screen for the rest of the information.

In the prototype shown to the press, the suspensions were Öhlins, the tail was single-seater, the instrumentation varied the placement of the LCD screen, the tail fans did not have protection grilles and the exhaust silencer was a carbon Arrow.

The Tornado was priced at 17,900 euros -the same price as an Aprilia RSV 1000 or a Ducati 999-

In the final version all this was changed, but they took the opportunity to launch a series limited to 150 copies, the Benelli Tornado 900 Tre Limited Edition. The LE featured Öhlins suspension, Marchesini forged wheels, carbon fiber body components and fenders, limited edition nameplate, titanium exhaust muffler, and was decked out in Benelli’s historic colors of green and silver. a very elegant combination.

Production began at the new Pesaro facility in mid-2002, and we tested it in August 2003. At the time, the Tornado was priced at €17,900 – the same price as an Aprilia RSV 1000 or a Ducati 999 – and the LE went up to an incredible 39,800 euros. Curiously, Rieju had the rights to import the brand into our country.

The Tornado’s 3-cylinder engine howled like a Ferrari engine, but with only 3 cylinders

The first units were sold at a very high price, but this did not prevent them from causing many engine problems, due to tolerances and clutch, issues that were resolved under warranty, but that diminished the reputation of the Tornado. To solve it, work began on a new engine with a cylinder capacity raised to 1,130 cc.

Thus, in 2004 the Tornado 1130 with 160 hp would be born, and without any serious problem, but its bad reputation, its high mechanical noise and its high consumption were not good reasons for buying. At the same time they created the TnT 1130, the first naked derived from the Tornado 1130, which suffered from the same defects, but was also unsuccessful.

After only three years on the market, the three-cylinder Tornado and Andrea Merloni’s dream are over, but we will always remember the guttural roar of that three-cylinder engine with the radiator in its ass… A Tornado that was actually a summer storm, a ephemeral whirlwind of passion.

A little history

Founded in Pesaro, a small town on the Adriatic that at that time had 40,000 inhabitants, the Benelli factory, which had originally manufactured bicycles and repaired vehicles, began operating as a motorcycle manufacturer in 1921. Its first motorcycle was a small utility vehicle, the Velomotore, equipped with a small 98 cc single-cylinder 2T cycle, and which in 1923 would reach 147 cc

Everything was designed and manufactured within those four walls of Pesaro, everything stayed at home. The Benelli brothers, Giuseppe, Giovanni, Francesco, Filippo, Domenico and Antonio – affectionately nicknamed “Tonino” – took care of everything.

In 1926 the brand made a great technological leap as Giuseppe designed a 175 cc single-cylinder 4-stroke cycle engine, his first 4-stroke, with gear cascade distribution -an innovative configuration-, very advanced for its time, with which Tonino will be Italian champion four times. On this basis, in 1931 the Gran Sport Monza 175, Benelli’s first series 4T, went on sale.

A second factory is opened on Via Mameli, but during World War II the factories are bombed and destroyed. It would not be until 1948 when the Benelli brothers resume manufacturing motorcycles, first rebuilding and converting abandoned military motorcycles, mainly British and German, and then building again, although Giuseppe would soon leave them to found his own brand, Motobi.

Benelli began manufacturing motorcycles in 1921 and in 1926 its first 4-stroke engine would arrive.

In 1950 would come the first world championship and the second victory in the TT, at the hands of Ambrosini, a title that would not be repeated until 1969 at the hands of Carruthers and the amazing four-cylinder Benelli 250. But the most successful motorcycle would arrive in 1951 with the Leoncino 125 2T, of which 32,000 units would be produced and it would be in production until 1962.

At the end of the 1960s, the famous Tornado 650 was marketed -inspiring the name of the 900 Tre-, which would be his first great two-cylinder street motorcycle, but the drought soon arrived. In 1972, he changed course: the Argentine industrialist Alejandro de Tomaso took over the brand, building a new factory and showing the first prototype of the spectacular Benelli Sei 750.

The 1980s mark the beginning of the end for the brand and the De Tomaso group is looking for solutions, such as selling Benelli models under the Moto Guzzi brand. But the inevitable happens and in 1988 it closes its doors. Andrea Merloni bought the brand in 1995, launching the Tornado 900 Tre and the TnT, designed by Adrian Morton, but things didn’t work out again…

And so, in 2005 the Chinese company Qianjiang, a giant with more than 14,000 employees and which produces 1,200,000 motorcycles annually in China, took over the brand and relaunched the design of new and daring models, and it continues like this today, for luck, alive and well and with successful models such as the Leoncino or the TRK502.

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