The story of the bisiluro designed by Taruffi
"Soaring on the truck, it still looks like an airplane, in fact we will see it fly, yet on a motorway", reported the Istituto Luce at the beginning of December 1948, while filming on a stretch of the Bergamo-Brescia motorway. The black and white images show four mechanics effortlessly lifting a particular silver-coloured vehicle, consisting of two drop-shaped hulls, joined together only by a metal bar and a wing. "On the ground, it looks like a gadget", continues the journalist, with the typical nasal voice of the reporters of the past.
In order to create that "gadget", Piero Taruffi, the legendary driver and engineer, spent months in his garage in Rome, along with his friend Carlo Giannini. His mechanical and technological skills, combined with a visionary ambition, produced the motorized bisiluro (dual torpedo), nicknamed Tarf in honour of its creator; a futuristic vehicle which, between the end of the 40s and the beginning of the 50s, went on to break twenty speed records, including breaking the 300 km/h barrier for the first time.
However, the love story between Taruffi and engines began long before, starting in his adolescence when his father, a doctor, gave him an AJS 350cc motorcycle for his high school diploma, in 1925. That British bike allowed the 19-year-old Taruffi to make his debut on the Monte Mario circuit, an uphill speed race, which he ended up winning. Shortly after, he decided to combine his passion for racing with his engineering studies, thanks to which he learned the technical knowledge behind cars and motorcycles. Taruffi began to test his intuitions while racing and used the races for new ideas to develop in the workshop. He became an exceptional driver, winning 44 car races (including the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and a Formula 1 Grand Prix) and 23 motorcycle races, but he was also a brilliant and curious designer.
Among the numerous innovations and prototypes he designed, two are immortal. The Gilera 500 Rondine, considered to be the first motorcycle of the modern era, and, as mentioned, the motorized bisiluro, a masterpiece of ambition and engineering.
The idea of a vehicle with a double hull body was not new. Two German designers had already worked on it: Ising and von Koenig-Fachsenfeld, yet Taruffi is the one who exalted it. Months of study and attempts led him to inaugurate, in 1948, Tarf1, his first bisiluro. Weighing just three hundred kilos, it was made up of two rocket-shaped aluminium frames connected together by very thin tubes: an ode to aerodynamics.
The left torpedo consisted of the pilot's cockpit, the controls and the tanks, while the engine was mounted on the one on the right, which was initially a 500cc Guzzi, then a 350cc Gilera and finally, in the early 1950s, on the new Tarf2, a 1,720cc Maserati. Four wheels, the steering wheel was a double control bar, because there was no space for steering, while between the two drops, a spoiler perfectly regulated the grip on the ground, allowing the wheels to barely touch.
With regard to the tyres for his Tarf, in 1906 the pilot and engineer born in Albano Laziale, in the Castelli Romani area, chose the ultralight Pirelli motorcycle tyres, and it wasn't the first time that the creative genius of Taruffi met the technical avant-garde of the Long P. He had, in fact, also relied on the Milanese company to beat the motorcycle speed record in 1937, when his Rondine with Pirelli Moto-Cord tyres reached 275 kilometres per hour on the Milan-Bergamo motorway.
It was in December 1948 when, in the tried and tested Bergamo-Brescia stretch, Taruffi unveiled his bisiluro that "looks like an aeroplane" and slyly prepared to make it fly on the asphalt. Forty-two years old, yet already grey-haired, three years later, after the victory at the legendary Carrera Panamericana, the Mexican chroniclers nicknamed him the Silver Fox, for his cunning driving and his grey hair.
On a cool but sunny winter day, Taruffi climbed into the small cockpit of the bisiluro and, after a few warm-up laps, the stopwatches were triggered: launched flat out, he broke the 300 km/h barrier, rewriting the history of speed. Before Tarf, no car had been able to surpass a motorcycle with the same potential: "My satisfaction was therefore great when I tested the car - Taruffi will go on to say -. The speed it reached not only matched, but greatly exceeded that of motorcycles". The new record, one of the many collected by Taruffi throughout his career, did not stop his research: between races, the silver fox would lock himself in the garage to further refine the bisiluro.
On March 20, 1951, with the new 4-cylinder, 1,720 cubic centimetres and 2 compressors Maserati engine, Taruffi arrived on the Fettuccia di Terracina, the section of the SS7 state road that connects Cisterna di Latina to Terracina. Many people flocked to the side of the road to admire the silver racing car as it passed by. Despite the late winter wind blowing threateningly on the Via Appia, after changing spark plugs and tyres, Taruffi launched the vehicle at full speed and reached 313 kilometres per hour aboard the bisiluro, a world record. Other records were broken, such as those at the Monthlery track in France and at the Monza racetrack. Mainly thanks to his ability to design and drive the bisiluro, the spacecraft that almost takes off on the asphalt, Taruffi has forever gone down in the history of engines and speed.
