ASK any race fan which make first went to four cylinders for a 250 and he'll probably answer, Honda. Such was the tremendous impact of the stranglehold those high-revving Japanese fours put on the world 250cc championship in the early 1960s.
But the answer's wrong. Benelli was first with a 250 racing four. What's more, it was supercharged and water-cooled. The reason it was not better known is that classic racing had already been halted by the Second World War when the beautiful little Benelli was unveiled at the Milan Show in the winter of 1939.
