http://ebay.com/
Or, Ebay item number 7198366290
Out of the thousands of Torpado images I have collected, I have never seen a Superlight (their top model), or any other Torpado like this before. It has many of the features of my 1984 Superlight, like the milled dropouts, internal rear derailleur routing, and "T"s in the lugs everywhere, but the font used in the TORPADO relief in the seat stay caps and top of bottom bracket is different from any others I've documented. Haven't seen the rear brake bridge either. There are holes in the rear dropout for the Portacatena mechanism, which helps lock it in closer to the 1980 range. Note however, that it already has a front derailleur tab.
QUESTION: As far as what other more known Italian builders were doing on their top level bikes of the time, does anyone well versed have a closer guess as to year of build? There is no serial number on the bike, which I have seen to be the case from the mid-late 70s through 1983 (Jeff Archer's 83 Super Racing has no serial number, IIRC).
Seller has already provided an ample amount of good PICS, but I DO hope that someone on the CR list will buy this beauty, build it up, and send me photos of the complete bike! Yes, it's an Italian paint job, but this is one cool bike in my book, yet too large for me at about 56cm c-c. I've successfully dealt with Riccardo the seller before, and Steven Maasland mentioned that he knows him more closely, and would trust him implicitly. (Mention Steven if you are the winner.)
I don't think I've posted new photos to the list yet, so to make comparisons,
here is my original "first love" that hurtled me into all this vintage bike
nonsense ... my 84 Superlight:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Ciao,
Mark Agree
Southfield MI USA