Benelli Tornado 302R India launch soon; deliveries to begin in July

Rumour mills have been churning out speculations about the Italian motorcycle maker Benelli's upcoming fully-faired motorcycle, Tornado 302R. While there is still no confirmation on the launch date of the Benelli Tornado 302R in India, emerging reports indicate that the fully-faired sibling of TNT 300 is well on its way to the Indian market and could hit the showrooms by July.

It was reported earlier that the launch would take place on June 2. However, that did not happen. Now the latest is that the launch will be in early July and the deliveries will start immediately after that. Benelli Tornado 302R is already available for bookings at the dealerships of the company and is expected to be available for test rides by mid-June.

To be pitted against Kawasaki Ninja 300 and Yamaha YZF-R3, the upcoming Benelli will get 300 cc liquid-cooled, parallel twin engine that can develop 36bhp at 12,000rpm and 27Nm at 9,000 rpm. This is the same engine that does duty in TNT 300. The price tag of the Benelli Tornado 302R is expected to hover around Rs. 3.5 lakh.

Unveiled at the 2015 EICMA Motorcycle Show in Milan, Benelli Tornado 302R employs 41mm upside down forks at front and mono suspension at the rear. It gets twin 260mm floating discs with a four-piston caliper brake at the front and a single 240mm disc with a single piston caliper brake at the rear. The motorcycle measures 2,175mm in length, 746mm in width, 1,146mm in height, and weighs 180kg.