Mototrans 250 Four

The Mototrans 250 Four, also written MT 250/4, was a four-cylinder 250 cc Grand Prix racing motorcycle built in 1967 by the Barcelona firm Mototrans, the most ambitious design the company ever produced itself rather than as a licensed Ducati. The engine was effectively two parallel twins joined together, with two crankshafts, twin cylinder head castings each driving its own camshafts through a cascade of gears, two valves per cylinder and a gearbox that could carry six or seven ratios. It developed about 50 hp at 14,000 rpm. The Italian engineers Auro Savelli and Renato Armaroli, both formerly of Benelli, were behind its development. It first raced at the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona in April 1967 with the Ducati veteran Bruno Spaggiari, who retired with clutch trouble, and it never won. Only one complete machine and a spare engine were built, and the project was dropped in 1968 and 1969 when the rules limited the 250 class to two cylinders.