Villa Racing Motorcycles

 Villa 125 Single-cylinder 1969

By the end of 1968 Francesco Villa was one of the best-known Italian racers in international motorcycle racing. He was also the best-prepared Italian technician in the challenging two-stroke field.
Villa built racing motorcycles for Mondial and for the Spanish Montesa company, and he had also worked with MV Agusta. It is hard for a private racer who competes at the international level to find a 125 motorcycle that combines good racing qualities with reasonable cost, so Villa decided to build his own.

The first product of the Villa factory was a 125 Grand Prix racer with a two-stroke, single-cylinder water-cooled engine. It was offered for sale at the beginning of 1969 and brought 950,000 Italian lire, with some spare parts thrown in. (At the time that was about $1,500.)
Francesco Villa had raced this motorcycle the year before. It won its first victory at Vallelunga and it came in second in the Italian championship.

The Villa 125 single-cylinder was an immediate success with the best racers in its class. Francesco's brother Walter Villa, Giuseppe Man-dolini, and Otello Buscherini won several Italian races with the motorcycle, and Buscherini and the German Scheimann almost won the 1970 West German Grand Prix with it.

Motorcycle: Villa 125 Single-cylinder Manufacturer: Motociclette Villa, Modena Type: Racing Year: 1969
Engine: Villa single-cylinder, two-stroke, with rotating-disk distribution. Displacement 123.6 cc. (54 mm. x 54 mm.)
Cooling: Water
Transmission: Seven-speed block
Power: 30 h.p. at 11,400 r.p.m.
Maximum speed: Over 120 m.p.h.
Chassis: Double cradle, continuous, tubular. Front and rear, telescopic suspension
Brakes: Front, central drum, four shoes; four-cam; rear, central drum

Villa 125 Two-cylinder 1971

After the success of his single-cylinder two-shaft rotating-disk 125 and 250 racers, Francesco Villa decided to continue manufacturing motorcycles.
Late in 1969 he introduced two interesting prototypes, a single-cylinder two-stroke 250, derived from a smaller vehicle, and a four-cylinder V, with paired and superimposed cylinders. Both engines were fed by rotating disk. The single-cylinder 250, which generated 40 h.p., turned in fine performances in racing. It was able to stand up against the greater power of the two-cylinder Yamaha, especially on city circuits, because of its light weight (under 200 pounds).

The four-cylinder version was set back by the new international regulations, and its only race appearance was at the 1969 Italian Grand Prix trials.
With the 250 four-cylinder unusable, Villa at once designed a two-cylinder version, again a two-stroke model. He cut his existing four-cylinder vertically and longitudinally to get a two-cylinder V that took up little space and could easily be housed in a handsome double cradle chassis. This engine, built in a 125 version (30 h.p.) and in a 250 version (50 h.p.), was raced infrequently, be cause Villa had also gone into the manufacture of cross-country racers and had little time to spare.

Motorcycle: Villa 125 Two-cylinder Manufacturer: Motociclette Villa, Modena Type: Racing Year: 1971
Engine: Villa two-cylinder narrow V, two-stroke, with double rotating-disk distribution. Displacement 122 cc. (43 mm. x 42 mm.)
Cooling: Air
Transmission: Six-speed block
Power: 30 h.p. at 15,000 r.p.m.
Maximum speed: Over 125 m.p.h.
Chassis: Double cradle, continuous, tubular. Front and rear, telescopic suspension
Brakes: Front, central drum, four shoes, four-cam; rear, central drum

Villa V4 GP Replica 1969

The original Moto Villa 250cc V4 was built in 1968 by Francesco Villa. The FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) changed the 250 class regulations to a maximum of two cylinders for 1969, sadly this bike never got a chance to race at GP level.