1975 Yamaha & Morbidelli Racers

 

  

In the 1960s, Philippe de Lespinay raced small displacement motorcycles in Europe. Lack of funds limited his involvement to whatever he could put his hands on, but he achieved enviable success.
This picture was taken at a national race in France in 1967, Philippe (# 14) on his ex-works Derbi, is leading French champion Yves Le Toumelin (F-Derbi).

 

Below, winning the GP class at Monthlery with an ex-works Derbi (# 3) next to Charlie Dubois, winner of the production class, and directly below aboard his first home built machine ( # 1) skidding his way on bad pavement.

 

 

 

 
 

 

At Spa Francorchamps for the 1968 FIM Belgian Grand Prix. The ex-works, ex-Nieto 1964 Derbi is air cooled and fitted with an 8-speed gearbox. Poor metallurgy during the Franco years in Spain prevented these brilliant motorcycles to perform as they could have if the regime had allowed the importation of German forged pistons. Obtaining better machinery was virtually impossible in the 1960s, at least in France or Spain. The German and Dutch were better served as the Dutch Kreidler distributor, Van Veen, was producing very competitive machinery albeit at a cost. None ever made it to France before the early 1970s.
 

 

After emigrating to the United States and sorting his situation, Philippe returned to motorcycle racing in 1973. After being disappointed by the questionable quality of the Yamaha 125cc production racer he had purchased, Philippe built his own racer based on a used machine that he highly modified with the help of his friend Hurley Wilvert.
The motorcycle presented lots of improvements over the base Yamaha machinery, that included a new 6-speed cluster, home-made water-cooled cylinder block with cast-iron liners, inclined shock absorbers for greater travel and aluminum disc brake. The result was spectacular as it won a number of races in the competitive AFM field in California. While the Yamaha engine produced 24HP at 13000rpm, Philippe's modified engine cranked 31HP at 15500rpm, a spectacular improvement found in better cylinder porting, improved exhaust extraction and  more even cooling allowing tighter piston clearance.

Several parts were found in the thrash bin of the Kawasaki R&D department in Santa Ana.

 

 

  "I made my own cylinder block on top of a reinforced Yamaha AS1 crankcase purchased in a junkyard for 10 Dollars, with the crank bearings screwed in place (they had a tendency to rotate inside the cases). I modified the 5-speed cluster into a six-speed using some existing Yamaha gears, narrowing them to fit, and a revision of the shifting drum. I seriously revised the wet clutch design and mounted it on needle bearings. Later I used a dry clutch made in France but it did not work as well.
I machined my own water pump driven by the former oil pump plastic gear, and used a discarded Kawasaki radiator as well as other discarded parts coming from the Kawasaki R&D thrash bin in Santa Ana, California, to build this bike. It included a Harley 250cc seat that I cut, shortened and narrowed, as well as other small bits. I made the fairing from a discarded aftermarket Yamaha 250 unit, cut down, narrowed, shortened, and fitted with a "bubble" on the right side to contain the water pump."

 

Hence the name of the bike, the "Garbage Can Special" or GCS. Philippe built the tuned exhaust, made new pistons from Hepolite forgings and used plain cast-iron liners, ported by Hurley Wilvert who was a driver for Team Hansen Kawasaki. The cylinder block used an extra "boost port" and holes in the piston to obtain a cooler and greater charge. The ignition was standard Yamaha TZ250, the tachometer was a Kroeber. All used bits and pieces had been purchased or donated by racing buddies. The front disc brake was made of uncoated aluminum discs and lightened Honda 500cc calipers. Philippe retained the AS1 rear wheel but fitted wider alloy D.I.D. rims for the special Dunlop K81 "soft compound" tires supplied free of charge by Joe Hunt, the Dunlop racing tires distributor. The tank was an alloy job from Steve Machin, modified with a flush aircraft cap and various other mods. The engine was tested on a Froude dynamometer and read 31HP, a substantial increase over the previously raced Yamaha TA125 model, that not only did not handle well but had poor braking and very suspect reliability.
It took Philippe 3 races to sort the beast out, then it won just about every race in south and north California that it entered. It utterly obliterated the other 125 GP bikes, Yamaha TA125, Honda MT125, Bultaco TSS, even the Villa-Montesa. It just won and won and won until Philippe obtained a drive on one of the works Morbidelli in 1978. 		 

 

In 1973, Gavin Trippe and Bruce Cox, the organizers of the Motocross US Grand Prix, asked Philippe to write an illustrated story that would present a futuristic look at Grand Prix racing. .

Originally produced for the program of the US Grand Prix (Motocross) in Carlsbad, CA in 1974, it was later re-printed in the Yamaha International Magazine in 1975. It precedes the actual re-introduction of the mono-shock rear suspension by Yamaha (1975) and shows many features that were quite advanced at the time, such as advanced aerodynamics and inboard disc brakes, not counting the bell-crank rear suspension that was later adopted by Kawasaki and ultimately most other motorcycle manufacturers.


The design of this motorcycle was inspired by Ray Amm's 1952 Norton record bike for the position (kneeling rather than seated) but used a center-hub steering with a front swing arm, a solution later picked by Andre De Cortanze for the Elf-X motorcycle in 1978.  De Cortanze was the designer of the Team Pescarolo Courage-C60 and also of the 1998-1999 Toyota GP-C, the Peugeot 905 LM of the ‘90s.
This advanced design also featured an aluminum monocoque chassis/fairing/fuel tank. The exhaust is routed under a composite resting pad under the driver's chest. Also note the cast wheels at a time when there were only wire wheels available for motorcycles. This exact wheel design was later used by Yamaha beginning in 1975. This design led to the following and more elaborate artwork devised in 1973.

 

  

 

Note the fixed idea with the kneeling position, better aero that actually provides down force instead of lift, but generally the same basic thinking, just more detailed. At right, a Kawasaki 250cc design similar to what was later used for Kork Ballington to win the 1978 World Championship, though that bike used an inline twin configuration to reduce width. These and many other concept drawings were shown to the Kawasaki R&D management at their request. They had a good look, since some of the solutions were later seen on their world beater.
 

"During a 1978 visit in Pesaro, I was hired by Giancarlo Morbidelli to design and build a new 250cc motorcycle. The works bikes had serious handling deficiencies and could not put their 72HP down to the ground satisfactorily. They had tested several frames from Nikko Baker and Bimota, but none was any better than the original unit.
Morbidelli wanted to explore entirely new directions and entrusted me with the job of designing and building something completely different."

 

   Mario Lega drives the new aero parts fitted on the 1977 bike. It was so much faster than the works Yamahas and Harleys in a straight line with these parts that Paolo Pileri won the super-fast Belgian Grand Prix at Spa at record speed, a minute and a half on front of Walter Villa (Harley) and Franco Uncini (Yamaha).
 		  

 

Right: the 1977 works team: Paolo Pileri and Mario Lega pose on front of the 250cc and 350cc machines, now fitted with the new seats (bikes at left and right) and the new fairings (bikes in center of the picture).

 

  

The late Paolo Pileri and Philippe in a candid picture taken at the Morbidelli racing shop in early 1978. The bike is the 250cc Morbidelli with which Mario Lega won the world championship in 1977. Interestingly, Philippe was wearing a true collector item that day: a Jorgensen-Eagle jacket, produced in very small quantities for the team members of the All American Racers Eagle team at the occasion of their 1975 Indy 500 win.

 

 
  Dr. Giancarlo Morbidelli was kind enough to loan Philippe one of the only five existing works bikes, fitted with a 1975 3-port engine. Philippe is seen here at Riverside Raceway in California where he accumulated the wins with this works machine. It is now in the Morbidelli museum museum in Pesaro, where it occupies a respected space.

 

Philippe was immediately unhappy with the Italian shock absorbers and fitted lay-down US-built S&W units. The bike immediately handled better with much more rear suspension travel. While it raised the back a bit, it also negated some of the lift caused by the fairing design, allowing a faster curve speed without having the front end washing out.  Here Philippe has a good dice with Jody Nicholas on the works Honda MT.

 


Philippe quit motorcycle racing at the end of 1978 to concentrate on his business.

 

   Philippe's bike is now on display at the Morbidelli Motorcycle Museum in Pesaro, Italy.

You can see more information on this HERE.


In 2008, Italian journalist and book writer Franco Daudo wanted to write a story of Philippe's involvement with the famous Italian motorcycle builder, and the ensuing story was published in the June 2009 issue of Moto Storiche, seen below, a good time to test your knowledge of the Italian language:

 

 

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