Every day’s a school day at the Lambrettista blog… I’ve not seen one of these before…
A plastic Biemme toddlers bike toy, clearly based on a Luna line Lambretta.
There’s clearly some damage, under the headlight, but if you’re a fan of Bertone’s space age reinvention of the Lammie, you might want this.
I’ll admit now to not always having been the biggest fan of Bertone’s little late-sixties space age Lambrettas… the Luna range. I used to think didn’t have the elegant lines of a classic Lammie for me.
I’ve since grown to realise that they were future classics – designed ahead of their time, and the world wasn’t quite ready. Today, I think they’ve a great 70’s retro futurism vibe about them… kinda like the Bond Bug.
There’s a nice example on eBay… a 1970 Lambretta Vega 75s. It was restored in 2005, and is a UK registered bike with all the proper paperwork. It needs a little tidy up, but it’s in pretty decent nick. It’s priced at £2,500.
Found this very clean Lambretta Lui 75S on eBay. It looks super space age in it’s silver livery… and as it is an Italian import is still a “Lui” rather than a “Vega”. I think that’s right… I’m no expert on the Luna line! (Hmm… Louis Vega… didn’t he do “Mambo Number 5”?)
Anyway, from the pics, this is a superb example of the model… although it’s going for an eye-watering £4,500… You used to be able to pick up these little beauties for peanuts! Here’s the eBay link.
Another great video from YouTube, featuring Scooters, and the Isle of Man. The last one I posted was from 1959… and it seems a world away from 1970, with those space age Luna lines…
No… I don’t speak Swedish (I’m thinking it’s Swedish, but I’m probably wrong), but I still found this little Luna roadtest rather watchable. Now, the Luna range doesn’t get much of a look in on this blog, which is a shame, because I really rather like them. They were a real back to basics scooter from Lambretta, back to the open frame principles of the original models A to D (I know there was a E and an F, but they pretty much petered out after the D). With this pared down, lightweight ethos and a space-age design from Bertone, where could they go wrong? Well, perhaps the Luna was just a bit too radical… ahead of it’s time, certainly a visual shock for aficionados of the clean curves of traditional Lambretta. But if you look at most modern small scooters, they’re a bit more Luna than GP. A superb design, a beautiful Bertone classic… born too soon?
I found this for sale on Car & Classic, and this one had me scratching my head…
I thought it was a 50’s racer when I first saw it… but it didn’t look like any 50’s racer I’d ever seen before. And Model D based racers were either 125’s or 150’s surely… Closer inspection threw up more questions than answers…
The machine in described as a 50 DL… (I mistakenly thought the D bit of this referred to a model D) As you probably know, what was marketed in the UK as a GP was sold in Italy and other markets as a DL. So, at least part of it is from a GP as we know it. But DL/GP’s were 125/150/200cc… But, a Lui was 50cc… which brings me to the forks and wheels… which are distinctly Luna line.
So. It’s a bit of a mongrel, put together from different parts of different models. But it has been done rather nicely, and it looks pretty good, if a little underpowered at 50cc. Legal if you are 16 though… there’s a thought.
Personally, I’d lose the rack, it doesn’t work on a “racer” for me, but otherwise this is a good looking, fun scooter. Not for everyone of course. If you fancy a 50cc with a Innocenti heritage, and the ability to turn a few heads (and make a few people scratch theirs too), it’s for sale here.
The site that Car & Classic links to is Nerves Auto, an Italian site featuring some lovely sports and classic cars.
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