Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The Moto Guzzi Condor 500 is a racing motorcycle, produced by Moto Guzzi between 1938 and 1940. Given the clear supremacy shown by some Italian and English single-cylinder machines on city circuits or those without significant straights, compared to the powerful but heavy "Ticilindrica", Carlo Guzzi entrusted the young engineer Giulio Cesare Carcano with the task of designing an agile and light, suitable for mixed routes and economical enough to be purchased by private pilots. Carcano started from the "GTW" model and the result was the "Condor" which could boast great handling and enviable mechanical robustness, being equipped with the enhanced version of the highly tested horizontal single-cylinder engine, produced in large series for road motorbikes. The model is easily identifiable by the voluminous additional oil tank, applied above the fuel tank. The first important victory was that of Nello Pagani achieved in 1939 during the last edition of the tortuous Circuito del Lario; Pagani managed to make the agility of the "Condor" prevail over the overflowing power of the supercharged Gilera 500 4C, also setting the lap record. Also in 1939, the talented private pilot Leo Lorenzi won four national races riding the "Condor", as well as the Christmas Cup on the Asmara Circuit. The following year, Guido Cerato put the robustness qualities of the "Condor" to the test, winning the prestigious Coppa del Duce, on the grueling Milan-Rome-Naples-Taranto route, once again at the expense of Dorino Serafini's Gilera. The discontinuation of the Moto Guzzi Condor was decreed by the Second World War, at the end of which it was replaced by the "Dondolino" evolution.
The Moto Guzzi Condor 500 is a racing motorcycle, produced by Moto Guzzi between 1938 and 1940. Given the clear supremacy shown by some Italian and English single-cylinder machines on city circuits or those without significant straights, compared to the powerful but heavy "Ticilindrica", Carlo Guzzi entrusted the young engineer Giulio Cesare Carcano with the task of designing an agile and light, suitable for mixed routes and economical enough to be purchased by private pilots. Carcano started from the "GTW" model and the result was the "Condor" which could boast great handling and enviable mechanical robustness, being equipped with the enhanced version of the highly tested horizontal single-cylinder engine, produced in large series for road motorbikes. The model is easily identifiable by the voluminous additional oil tank, applied above the fuel tank. The first important victory was that of Nello Pagani achieved in 1939 during the last edition of the tortuous Circuito del Lario; Pagani managed to make the agility of the "Condor" prevail over the overflowing power of the supercharged Gilera 500 4C, also setting the lap record. Also in 1939, the talented private pilot Leo Lorenzi won four national races riding the "Condor", as well as the Christmas Cup on the Asmara Circuit. The following year, Guido Cerato put the robustness qualities of the "Condor" to the test, winning the prestigious Coppa del Duce, on the grueling Milan-Rome-Naples-Taranto route, once again at the expense of Dorino Serafini's Gilera. The discontinuation of the Moto Guzzi Condor was decreed by the Second World War, at the end of which it was replaced by the "Dondolino" evolution.
