Parilla V11, horizontal cylinder, is the engine, that has internationally stopped the leadership of American engines in the kart field. In 1958 Giovanni Parrilla, founder of Moto Parilla, charged the engineer Cesar Bossaglia to plan an engine for karts and the three gears PB10 125 came to light. But it was an engine “still too much for motorcycles” for being mounted on a kart. The 100 cc PB7 horizontal cylinder and forced cooling arrived in 1959. It was a gearless engine, but with a speed reducer between drive shaft and pinion. Produced in a few units, the PB7 was replaced at the end of the same year by the V11, that, to all intents and purposes, is the first mass-produced Parilla kart engine.

The V11 mechanically resumes the same solutions experienced on the PB7: horizontal cylinder, air forced cooling with a conveyor of printed sheet, rotating disc feeding and release in the upper part of the cylinder (at the beginning it was used an open “horn”, without any sort of noise reducer). Structurally the only difference of a certain importance is the reducer absence, used on the PB7. On the V11, in fact, the pinion is directly mounted on the drive shaft, according to what will become the traditional pattern of all kart engines.

The V11 is produced in two models: “Special” and “Thunderbolt”. Both mount die-cast casings of light alloy. The difference is the cylinder stuff, that on the “Special” is of cast iron, while on the “Thunderbolt” is of light alloy with a cast iron jacket. The head, with the central plug, is of light alloy, too. Bore and stroke are 48 x 54 milimeter, for an actual piston displacement of 98 cc. The compression ratio is of 12,8:1. The carburetor, a Dell’Orto disjoint float chamber, horizontal body, of 22 milimeter, feeds the engine through an angle manifold obtained directly on the cover of the rotating valve. The decomposable drive shaft, a traditional type for a two-stroke engine, turns on bearings. The stated power is of 11,5 CV at 9.500 turns (that’s why “V11”: the number refers to the horsepower).

In the photogallery you will find a picture of the disassembled engine, published, for the first time and exclusively, by KartClassic, very useful for people willing to restore a V11.