Roberto Gallina is an Italian motorcycle racer who competed in Grand Prix events in the 1970s on machines from Laverda, Motobi, Benelli, and Ducati. In the 1980s, Gallina founded his own race team, (Team Gallina) which went on to win back-to-back 500cc world championships in ’81 and ’82. He eventually opened a race shop in his hometown of La Spezia, where he assisted in the development and design of various race and production bikes.
In the late 1980s, Gallina was approached by Japanese investor Yoshiyuki Hayashi in hopes of joining forces to create their own cutting-edge motorcycle. Hayashi, a well-known figure in the Japanese motorsport scene, sponsored a myriad of motorcycle and automotive race teams on the island, owned an ample personal colleciton of breathtaking GP bikes, and even owned the famous Fuji circuit.
Hayashi’s deep pockets enabled him and Gallina to recruit some of the best designers and engineers Italy had to offer, bringing together a crack team comprised of individuals who’d previously worked for firms like Bimota, Ferrari, and MV Agusta’s GP squad. The new bike — dubbed the Quattro 750 — was powered by a heavily-reworked engine out of the game-changing GSX-R750.
The inline four’s timing chain was swapped out for a more exact gear-driven camshaft setup, and the cases, cylinders, and head were recast in magnesium. While the prototype pretty much utilized the same cooling setup as the Gixxer (air-cooled cylinders/oil-cooled head), its cooling fins were reportedly slightly more pronounced. When dyno’d with open race pipes, Gallina’s 750 was good for a claimed 130hp at 13,000rpm — a significant bump over the Gixxer’s 105 horses.
The chassis was another major highlight on the bike: a hybrid tubular trellis structure with machined aluminum side plates. Suspension components consisted of Marzocchi M1R forks and mono-shock, while Brembo supplied the brakes and Marvic provided forged 17-inch three-arm wheels. The Quattro was dressed in unmistakably ’90s bodywork that was designed by Roberto Ugolini – he helped pen numerous bikes for Bimota (including the iconic Tesi 1D), which explains the visual similarities between the Quattro 750 and some Bimotas of the era like the late-’80s YB7.
The Gallina-Hayashi 750 was built for the purpose of competing in the World Superbike championship, though the project’s competition aspirations never came to fruition. Unfortunately, the economy in Japan was rocked by a major recession in 1990 not long after the project’s inception, forcing Hayashi to withdraw funding from the venture. When all was said and done, only ten Quattro 750 prototypes were ever produced, along with a couple of spare engines. Supposedly, each of the ten specimens cost around $250,000, which translates to approximately $490K today with inflation.
Overall this Quattro 750 example is a really interesting and unique motorcycle that sadly never got to see its full potential. A hand-built, mag-cased, Italian-framed Gixxer 750 shrouded in custom bodywork definitely isn’t something you see every day! Find this 1990 Gallina Quattro 750 Prototype for sale here on RaceBikeMart in New York City, New York with a price of $55,000.