Tag Archives: Alessandro Tartarini

New Lambrettas next May?

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uite?A bit of a scoop here, thanks to a reader, Mark, who spotted this on the official Lambretta brand website.

The majority of the text below is copied from his original email to me…

Screen Shot 2015-11-24 at 09.45.04Remember, back in 2012, and then new Lambretta LN scooter?  There was an ongoing battle between the so-called Lambretta Consortium and Motom, who produced the LN.  As I’m sure you know the Consortium subsequently appear to have won the legal battle and the Lambretta revival turned out to be a very short lived affair. As an LN owner, I’ve always thought this was a great shame and, whilst it was never going to satisfy the purists, I thought that the LN deserved a chance to succeed – and not be strangled at birth.

Fast forward to November 2015 and there’s been a very interesting development over at the Lambretta Consortium’s website today regarding the prospect of another new Lambretta scooter.  According to the website, this is due to be launched on 4th May 2016.  See www.lambretta.com/scooters for more details.

As always lots of questions remain.  For example: what will the new Lambretta look like? Will it bear any resemblance to the LN or even be a freshly produced LN?  When will it be available to buy and how much will one cost?  What size engines will the new Lambretta have? Will it be designed by Alessandro Tartarini? The teaser SX style headlight and the sketch below hint to something quite LN’ish to me…

L'70On that official Lambretta brand website is a countdown calendar (I’ve pasted in a screenshot of it above), and (according to my calculations anyway) it’s counting down to the 3rd of May, 2016. There’s also a reference to “L’70 Models” Intriguing!

Of course, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since 2012, notably the launch of the Scomadi, and many Lambrettisti would consider one of these of more authentic lineage to an LN, or whatever a L’70 is going to be… but we’ll see, we’ll see.

So, watch this space, I’ll have a sniff around and see if I can come up with any juicy info. And if you hear anything on the grapevine, let me know!

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LamSport 125 – “New Lambretta” with NO Lambretta DNA.

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The “New Lambretta” saga rumbles on. Most readers of this site, I suspect, will not be particularly interested, having not taken the 2011 Lambretta LN to their hearts. Which is a shame, because, IMHO, although clearly not a classic Lambretta, it paid homage to the lines and spirit of the marque, and had a little Lambretta DNA in it’s blood. Now we have a “New Lambretta” The LamSport.

The new machine, despite being designed by the same Alessandro Tartarini behind the LN design, and who’s radical designs for the range of Caterham Motorcycles I was a big fan of, disappoints me on every level. It’s just an ok looking modern sports style scooter.  With a Lambretta badge on it.
The LN was a decent stab at reinventing a classic machine for the twenty-first century. This is badge engineering at it’s worst. The old Lambretta Motorcycles website from Motom is now down, and I suspect that that is the end of Lambretta LN, which will become an interesting side note to Lambretta history. UPDATE: Further research has found that the LN is still linked to on the Vinh Phat Group website here – so it appears to be in production alongside the the LamSport. And in twenty or thirty years time, when the LamSport is all but forgotten about there will be one or two LN’s left, commanding big prices amongst the  Lambretta collectors and completists. A real shame.6_esterno
The LamSport is being assembled and distributed by the Vinh Phat Group in Vietnam, who launched the new model in Hanoi last week. I’m sure it will do very well in the home market, at least. As far as I’m concerned, if you want a ‘modern Lambretta’ and you are in Hanoi, you would be better off with an Ebretta.EbrettaI’m sorry, I’m not going to write about this any more. This upsets me. If you want to find out more, The excellent ScooterNova blog is a good source. But don’t expect to find any more posts on the LamSport on this blog.

UPDATE: My sources tell me that it may not quite be the end of the road for the Lambretta LN, which is good news. I find myself, as a rider of an Innocenti 1960 LI150 Series 2, in the unlikely position of flag waver for the LN, but it is, from all accounts, a good, reliable and stylish modern scooter, and it definitely has my old S2 in it’s family tree. Stay tuned, for more Lambretta LN info, and nothing more about the LamSport!