As well as having the best name of any vintage racing outfit, Team Obsolete has an eye-watering collection of bikes. And they?re all ready to line up on the grid, including a 1964 Honda 250/6 that revs to 18,000 rpm and a flotilla of MV Agusta works racers.
You could fill a book with stories and pictures of T.O. machines, and we love racing eye candy as much as anyone. This extremely quick Benelli 350/4 is one of our favorites: It?s the machine that Renzo Pasolini piloted to second place in the 1968 Isle of Man Junior TT.

Team Obsolete was set up over 30 years ago by Rob Iannucci, with a mission to get exotic GP machines out of museums and onto racetracks. And he?s succeeded: restored and expertly tuned, T.O. bikes have won over 400 races worldwide. This 350/4 can trace its lineage back to a Benelli 250 that made its racing debut in 1962 and pumped out an incredible 52 hp at 16,000 rpm. By 1966, in the spec we see here, the engine had become a 345cc with four valves per cylinder.

This mini-marvel has two separate heads, with a train of gears from the center of the crank driving double overhead cams. Ignition is via a Mercury outboard magneto, the gearbox has seven speeds, and the chassis uses 35mm Ceriani forks.
Even the brakes are beautiful: stopping duties are handled by a 230mm four-leading-shoe front drum, with a 200mm 2LS at the back.

?This bike was acquired by Team Obsolete in the early 80s,? Rob tells us. ?It was a basket case, and came from a German racer...