Description
This motorcycle is Lot 68 to be auctioned by Bonhams at The Spring Stafford Sale (The International Classic MotorCycle Show) on April 25th & 26th, please see the Bonhams Motorcycles Website for full details. Auction Timings: Lots 1 - 94 are to be sold from 14:30 on Saturday 25th April 2026. Lots 201 - 353 are to be sold from 11:30am on Sunday 26th April 2026. Public Viewing: Available 25th & 26th April 2026 from 09:00 until 17:00, at The Staffordshire County Showground (The International Classic MotorCycle Show). The Connoisseurs Collection, Part II ** c. 1956 FB Mondial 123cc Bialbero Grand Prix Racing Motorcycle** Registration no. not registered Frame no. * 404* (possibly restamped) Engine no. 206 ** The Lot is from outside the UK. Shippio Ltd must automatically uplift this Lot after the auction, complete all post sale import or export customs administration, and store this Lot until it is customs cleared. A compulsory fee of £350 + VAT will be added to the buyer's invoice for this. This Lot cannot be collected from the auction venue by the purchaser or any alternative transporter. If the Lot is to stay in the UK or is not exported within 90 days of sale, Import VAT at 5% on the hammer price is payable.** The historic machine offered here was purchased in period by a prominent Japanese industrialist directly from Mondial. At the time, the buyer was developing a fledgling motorcycle company and believed that participation in international racing would be the most effective way to demonstrate technical capability and promote the brand globally. With ambitions to compete successfully at Grand Prix level, he travelled extensively through Europe studying the leading racing manufacturers and their engineering practices. One of the companies visited was FB Mondial, which had won both the 125cc and 250cc World Championships in 1957 and whose motorcycles represented the pinnacle of Grand Prix design in those categories. Founded in Bologna in 1929 by the four Boselli brothers, Mondial concentrated on the manufacture of commercial vehicles prior to WW2, only turning to motorcycle making in 1948 following a meeting between co-founder Giuseppe Boselli and engineer Alfonso Drusiani. Flying in the face of accepted wisdom, Drusiani believed that it was possible for a four-stroke to compete against the two-strokes then dominating the ultra-lightweight class. To obtain the necessary power, Drusiani specified twin overhead camshafts (bialbero in Italian) for Mondial's 123cc single. After a successful debut season in 1948 which saw works rider Nello Pagani win the Italian Grand Prix, the little Mondial was further improved for 1949. Maximum power was raised to 13bhp and Pagani duly brought Mondial its first World Championship. Mondial's dominance of the 125 class remained just as overwhelming for the next two years, Bruno Ruffo taking the title in 1950 and Carlo Ubbiali in '51, before Cecil Sandford struck back for MV Agusta in 1952. By this time there was also a single-overhead-camshaft version for sale to private customers. One of the first of the latter was future World Champion Tarquinio Provini, who won every race entered in 1953, thus gaining himself a place in the Mondial works team for 1954. Less highly stressed than the Grand Prix twin-cams, the SOHC Mondial was the works' mount of choice for long-distance races such as the Giro d'Italia and Milan–Taranto. After a relatively lean spell, Mondial returned to Grand Prix glory in 1957, taking both the 125cc and 250cc World Championships courtesy of Provini and Cecil Sandford respectively. At the end of the 1957 season, the Italian factories – Gilera, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta and Mondial – withdrew from Grand Prix racing citing unsustainable cost increases. Around this time one of the latest 125cc machines was acquired directly from Count Boselli and shipped to Japan for technical evaluation, arriving in September 1958. The motorcycle offered here is believed to be that machine. This FB Mondial bialbero is kitted out with the once ubiquitous 'dustbin'-type fairing, developed originally by Moto Guzzi and banned by the FIM at the end of the 1957 season. Although most of Mondial's works 125s employed shaft-and-bevel drive to the overhead camshafts, this machine has the vertical train of gears seen on some later examples. It should be noted that the frame number may have been restamped; accordingly, prospective purchasers should satisfy themselves with regard to this motorcycle's authenticity prior to bidding. Presented in restored condition (the engine turns over), it represents a rare opportunity to acquire a thoroughbred Grand Prix racing motorcycle from one of the most successful marques of the era, whose engineering would go on to influence the development of later Grand Prix machinery in Japan. Unregistered and offered without documents. Following a period of inactivity, this motorcycle will require recommissioning and/ or restoration to a greater or lesser extent before...
