High Cam Production Racers...Camma Rialzata 

Parilla produced a series of factory made production race bikes for sale through their importers/main dealers. From the late 40's the factory entered machines in road race events within Italy. From the series of "town" races where roads were shut for a days circuit racing to the 24 hour linear races such as  the "Milan - Taranto" & the week long "Motogiro D'Italia" endurance events. All these events were very important to home sales but were virtually unheard of abroad.

In the USA, from the late 50s, some competition bikes were imported & these along with the Giro winner Rottigni started to make some impact on the racing scene. This ended in the mid 60s with the Parilla being one of the "winningest" marques in the small capacity classes.

In the UK there appears to have been little activity other than a dabble in Scrambling with the 250 Wildcat & the odd well-connected Gentleman Racer lucky enough to garner an ex  factory racer. Maurice Cann is known to have raced a 250 Parilla in the UK, our contributor Richard Morley is the only known UK Parilla International racer of the period.  As racing in any market is usually entered into by an importer as a means of publicity & increasing sales the marque was at a distinct disadvantage in the UK as all imports were subject to 33% import duty. Even if they won everything in sight it would have been unlikely that anyone would buy a 175 when they could have a 500 Triumph or Norton for the same price.

In Continental Europe there were few who used the Parilla. One of the best known was Roland Schnell who had some notable successes during the 50s on ohc machines.

Today the factory produced "Hi cam" racers are probably the most sought after of all the models. Single & dohc race bikes exist but are not generally likely to be on the market, Hi cams are slightly more numerous & one may be lucky enough to find one in a barn somewhere...that's where I got mine!