He entered local races, first on a Norton and then a BMW, but according to period accounts he was more likely to crash than finish. The young Manuel developed a passion for power sports, racing both speedboats and motorcycles. In the then Golden Age of Hollywood the company thrived, establishing a reputation for quality and durability in their projectors, many of which are reportedly still in use.
But seeing opportunity in the rapid growth of the movie business, around 1928 the family founded a new company, Orpheo Sincronic Sociedad Anonima (O.S.S.A.), to manufacture movie projectors and associated equipment. Until the 1920s, it appears the Giro family was in the textile machinery business in Barcelona. Manuel’s birth year is recorded as 1907, yet he is also credited with a career in the Spanish Merchant Marine before founding the OSSA company, which if true would seem to raise doubts about the timeline of the early part of the OSSA story: How could one man have accomplished so much in such a short period of time? Yet even if only some of the stories are true, OSSA motorcycles patriarch Manuel Giro was clearly quite the adventurer and innovator. Apart from a short list of race wins, the OSSA motorcycle story, at least the part recorded in the public domain, is vague and contradictory.
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