Glorious Guzzi guide
Internationally renowned journalist and CB contributor Alan Cathcart’s latest book covers the history and heyday of Guzzi’s factory race bikes
Published to mark last year’s centenary of the foundation of this legendary company, Moto Guzzi Factory Racers by CB contributor Alan Cathcart includes not only the complete technical evolution and racing history of the fabulous 500cc V8, but also all the bikes which preceded it. That includes the factory’s world title-winning 250cc and 350cc singles, as well as its various 500cc contenders.
The book covers the history of the Moto Guzzi factory Grand Prix racers up to 1957, when the company withdrew from racing at the end of that season, having won the 350cc World Championship for the fifth successive year.
It also includes Cathcart’s personal riding impressions of two of the most significant models in Guzzi’s racing history – the 500cc wide-angle 120° V-twin Bicilindrica, and the iconic V8 Otto Cilindri which succeeded it.
Moto Guzzi Racers is available as a large format (30cm x 23cm) hardcover – a prestigious volume, printed on quality paper, with 160 pages and 91 full-page photographs. It’s the treatment of those photos that makes the book especially attractive – Franco Bartoli, the owner of FBA which also publishes Mondo Ducati, has printed virtually every one of them full-page, so the images can really be savoured to the full.
The book has been published in two languages – English and Italian – by FBA Moto Italiane in Firenze, Italy, and full details are available on their website address at the end of this review. Moto Guzzi Factory
Racers is only available via mail order to be sent duty-free anywhere in the world (as books are not subject to any import tax in any country) and is priced at 49 euros (£40.74*). motoitaliane.it/en/prodotto/moto-guzzi-factory-racers