A bit of nostalgia for you… whenever I was off school back in the ’80’s…there wasn’t much telly on… I remember stuff like Crown Court and General Hospital… and then, at lunchtime, there was always Pebble Mill. Here’s an episode from the 80’s featuring Lambretta legend Mike Karslake, and some of his extensive Lambretta collection, including his Lambretta based fire engine and Wolfie’s Lambretta from Citizen Smith! He makes quite an entry on a Series 2 sidecar combination!
I had this fantastic sent to me by Carlos from the Lambretta Club of South Africa, (thanks Carlos!) It’s of a couple of French guys (although I think they actually may be from the french speaking part of Switzerland, from the writing on the ‘topbox’ flag on the laid down Lammie)… on route from Lausanne to “le Cap”. The pic was taken in the Sahara! That’s quite a trip! Carlos reckons it was sometime in the ’50’s. I love their style… baggy trousers, a pair of stout brogues, beatnik beards and a nice tweed sports jacket for when it gets a bit chilly. They bred ’em tough in them days.
Thanks again Carlos, and Andy for forwarding it on. If YOU have any old Lambretta shots, I’d love to see them, and post them up here.
Love this old pic I found online… Hampton Hill Post Office is just over the River Thames from me, and the last time I rode past it, hadn’t changed much! I’ll have to “streetview it” and see if it’s changed…
After yesterdays post featuring a couple of J125 Starstreams, I thought I’d post another couple of Innocenti vehicles again, this time of the four wheeled variety! As Mini afficionados will know, The Innocenti Mini Cooper is the Italian version of the Cooper S, arguably built to a higher standard! I found these two very nice examples for sale, if they tickle your fancy, you know what to do!
The first one is Immaculate Innocenti Cooper Export 1300. Subject to a full, nut and bolt restoration and bare metal respray completed in 2011. Very original car, rebuilt to virtually original specification (twin tank added). Rare original colour scheme, Sabbia Beige / Nero. A regular at the Mini car shows across the country, and featured in Classic and Sports Car Magazine in October 2011… more info over on eBay.
The second car is a 1974 1300 Export – Professionally restored About 8 years ago. As Described as being in “Stunning condition and very original specification”, again, there’s more info over on eBay
Fantastic collation of original Lambretta imagery from the City of Paola, in Calabria, Southern Italy. Put together by Paolo Perotta.
Reading in this article from India’s “The Hindu” online newspaper about the new found respect for Lambretta’s in India. SIL, (Scooters India Ltd) are still a going concern, still rolling out factory fresh GP200 engines like this one on eBay (I think they are still making them, they may have a big warehouse full of NOS somewhere!).
There are the usual newspaper inaccuracies about Lambretta history of course, but we’ll skip past them, to get to a nugget of info that stopped me in my tracks. Back in the day, the Lambretta scooter became the preferred personal transport of white-collar workers on the subcontinent, mostly government and bank employees. Soon, demand far surpassed production, and the waiting list for the vehicle lengthened. And lengthened. Mr Mr Raveendran, ex Superintendent of Government Gardens and Parks takes up the story;
“In the 60s, you could buy a Lamby only through the State Industries Department. One had to book the scooter and wait for a minimum of six years to take delivery”
Did you get that? A SIX YEAR waiting list! Although, as ever in life, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Mr. Raveendran managed to jump the queue, and get his scooter in two weeks.
The original article is here.
Back in 1965, Marlene Parker, a 22 year old Bristol Taxi driver, was selected from 67 female applicants from across the country to ride a Lambretta scooter in Monza in Italy and break the world record. Marlene went on to ride the Filtrate sponsored Lambretta to a record beating 110 mph.
Now, nearly 50 years on, the team behind this record is reuniting… and they’ve even found the original machine, which in now in the hands of The Scooter Center, the German specialist scooter shop, who intent to completely rebuild it and return it to its former glory.
The only problem is nobody knows where Marlene is now. Robert Forest-Webb, who designed the machine and now lives in Hertfordshire, said “The only person missing, and who was probably the most important person of all, is Marlene. Does anyone know where she may be found? Can anyone help us? If you know, then please get in touch.”
The Bristol Post has got behind this story, and is helping try to track down Marlene. Their reporter, Emily Koch, would love to hear from you.You can Email her here, or phone her on 0117 934 3412.
Read more on the Bristol Post site.
Via The Scooter Fix Facebook page
UPDATE: In my eagerness to stick this post up, I didn’t realise the original Bristol Post article was from 2009… so it may well be that Marlene has been located. I’m attempting to follow up the story, if you know more (has it been in Scootering for instance, and I missed it) lat me know and I’ll run an update. Another one.
I love this little J50 I have discovered on eBay… looks like it’s in pretty good, original condition; the sign writing looks bang on, and contemporaneous with the scooter. I imagine it was originally a municipal vehicle for the Italian equivalent of the local council. Fantastic. Great patina… and no, that’s not a euphemism for “rusty as ••••” . In my opinion, the new owner would should keep this scooter exactly as it is… as a little piece of cultural history. Marvellous. all the details, and a few more pics on eBay.
eBay Link
This is my third post about the work of The Rimini Lambretta Centre. I make no apologies for this, they produce first class work, and they are the acknowledged experts in the fine art of the “conserved restoration”. Coupled with there usually being an interesting story behind the work, and some great images, it’s a no brainer. So, on with the post, and what we have here is another fantastic job, on a small, but important piece of Lambretta history.
The owner, Marcello Taglialegne, picked up this machine, in a really sorry state, at a parts fair. Some nifty homework confirmed the sellers’ story that it was an Ancillotti original, and, although the bodywork was in a bad way, with a massive crack at the rear section of the frame, and the engine was missing, it was decide that this scooter MUST be saved! A ton of work was done. This included sourcing a NOS 200cc engine as originally used by the Ancillotti brothers, and a hand-made inlet manifold to house the unfeasibly large Dell’Orto that sticks out the side of this scoot like Satchmo’s horn. The other thing that draws your eye straight away on this unique Lambretta is the front mudguard, which looks like it’s on backwards! A point of ‘heated debate’ in the RLC workshop, it was the way Ancillotti originally did it, so it was going on like that. I kind of like it, and have certainly never seen anything like it before.
But my favourite part of this scoot is the seat. What a seat. Original to the scooter, and recovered, it sets the whole scoot of beautifully. The first time I ever heard the word Ancillotti was in relation to scooter seats (back in the day, it was that or a “Snetterton”) and this is the daddy of all Ancillotti racing seats. I want one like that!
For the full story of all the painstaking, period correct work that was carried out, and it’s quite a saga, but a good read; see the RLC website. There’s lots more pics of this fascinating scooter on there too.
The following is thanks to my online pal Corey, of Ottawa, Ontario’s ScooterFix, who originally got material from the equally excellent British Lambretta Archive:
Regular readers of the Lambrettista blog will know I like an exotic Lambretta. The original Italian Innocenti’s are something special, obviously, and over recent years Indian machines have become first acceptable, then desirable in Lambretta circles. France still has a huge amount of French manufactured LC’s & LD’s on the road and the German NSU Lambretta’s have their aficionados. I’ve written about Brazilian Lambrettas before, and briefly on the Argentinian Siambretta when I posted about this amazing Model D twin. What I didn’t know a lot about, until I read Corey’s original post a while back was the Chinese connection. Well, Taiwan, but this little Island off of the People’s Republic of China still officially calls itself The Republic of China. Although, perhaps wisely considering the size and power of their neighbour, The ROC has not made the retaking of mainland China (which it still considers it’s sovereign territory), a political goal since 1992. 
Anyway. Back to the Lambrettas. In 1962 a technical agreement had been signed between Innocenti and the Yue Long Motor Co Ltd, of Taipei. It is not known if Yue Long manufactured complete scooters or just put together component parts. It is known that the Series 3 TV 175 were made by Yue Long and these came with a chrome ring. As with the Italian models, these were available with both Li and Special style panels. The frame numbers are distinctive in that they start with the prefix YLL, a dash then 175TV3 another dash – and then an 8 digit frame number. In terms of paint schemes we have seen photos of the Li panelled TVs in white with contrast colours on the horn cast and side panels and the Special panelled TV’s in silver.
No, it’s not a swastika with a missing leg – Yue Long stamped their products with a three legged symbol – similar to the Manx three legged symbol inside a circle.
The Yue Long Lambretta factory produced scooters in a huge plant. Rows of scooters have been completed, waiting for shipping.
Various publicity shots show visiting foreign dignitary’s being shown around the factory, Including The Central African Republic President Bo Kasa. History doesn’t record whether he took the Yue Long Lambretta Cento back to Africa with him!
Dominican Vice President Gao Yi Ge also visited…and apparently personally test rode the Lambrettas. Well, who could blame him?
Taiwan’s postmen were some of the coolest around, riding a fleet of green liveried TV’s!
So, are you a resident of Taiwan? I know they blog has readers in the ROC (132 views from Taiwan before this post)! Are there still any Yue Long Lambrettas still around? If there are…or if your mum or dad had a Lambretta (maybe he was a postman!) get in touch and show me, and the Lambretta world, the pics!
UPDATE: I have found this Facebook Group for all Lambretta scooter enthusiasts in Taiwan and their friends, and for owners of Lambrettas that were manufactured in Taiwan. Some great pics on there!
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