with this mechanism, then copied by the competition), the Velvet (in the displacement 125, 150, 250, 400) which remained in the list until 2012, the 491, very popular among fourteen-year-olds of the time, that mounted a rare horizontal Morini engine of 50 cm³ at 2 times with liquid cooling and that made it one of the most performing of the lot, the K2 (50 and 100 cm³) and the Pepe (of 50 cm³ then became the best-selling Benelli scooter in recent years); the latter, powered by a Minarelli engine, had a good commercial success. In 1999 was hired the technician Riccardo Rosa (ex Cagiva) and was then presented the new Tornado Tre, a sports bike (900 cm³, then brought to 1130 cm³), with interesting technological innovations. It was in fact a pure sports bike, equipped with a 3-cylinder engine in-line that presented a new arrangement of the cooling radiator positioned under the rear tail and equipped with two forced air extraction fans of spectacular effect and a new "mixed" frame consists of a die-cast aluminium and steel tubes joined with a technology of aeronautical origin. The Tornado Tre 900 super sport bike was launched in 2002, and the TNT, roadster some years later. "The races improve the breed" and Merloni, a former driver, knew it well so the next step was to prepare the new Tornado for the races. As per his style, Merloni immediately began to run in 2001 and 2002 in the World Superbike Championship with the Australian rider Peter Goddard, who with his long experience has been able to give directions to improve the bike and consequently also the series. Given that the team was at the start and fierce competition, the results were higher than expected with a 36th place in the final classification in 2001 (with 7 points) and a 22nd place in 2002 (with 23 points). A limited version of the Tornado (named the Tornado LE, where LE stands for Limited Edition) was built. The results of the new Benelli are encouraging but the strong investments for the Tornado are not compensated by sales and even Andrea Merloni decides to stop. Current Qianjiang ownership In 2005, Benelli was acquired by Qianjiang Motor Group, a Chinese company which has been controlled by the Geely Holding Group since 2015. The Qianjiang Group is a Chinese manufacturer of small motorcycles and engines, which already owns the Keeway