- 6 days ago
- #motorcycles
- #scooters
- #history
From a humble water pipe to a 200 km/h record-breaker, Lambretta’s story is full of clever engineering, Vespa rivalry, scooter-mad Mods, and a dramatic rise and fall. Discover the legendary ride that took Europe by storm—and why its legacy still lives on.
#Motorcycles #Scooters #History
Subscribe to our channel for more stories from the world of motorcycles.
Comment below and tell us what you liked most from the video.
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@krasmoto
0:00 - The Origins of Lambretta
4:31 - Early Models and Italian Success
6:13 - The Vespa-Lambretta Speed Rivalry
9:55 - Racing Legacy and Abandoned Motorcycle Plans
11:21 - Global Growth and Scooter Performance
14:28 - Mods, Rockers, and Scooter Culture
17:57 - Decline, Closure, and Indian Revival
20:37 - Lambretta's Modern Legacy and Pop Culture
#Motorcycles #Scooters #History
Subscribe to our channel for more stories from the world of motorcycles.
Comment below and tell us what you liked most from the video.
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@krasmoto
0:00 - The Origins of Lambretta
4:31 - Early Models and Italian Success
6:13 - The Vespa-Lambretta Speed Rivalry
9:55 - Racing Legacy and Abandoned Motorcycle Plans
11:21 - Global Growth and Scooter Performance
14:28 - Mods, Rockers, and Scooter Culture
17:57 - Decline, Closure, and Indian Revival
20:37 - Lambretta's Modern Legacy and Pop Culture
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Greetings dear viewers of the Cross Cross Moto channel!
00:03In this episode we bring you another story of motorcycle manufacturing.
00:06Most motorcycle enthusiasts are familiar with Vespa scooters,
00:10but not everyone knows that Vespa had a less glamorous cousin named Lambretta.
00:15Sit back, grab some snacks.
00:17In this video you will learn why the first Lambretta was made from a scrap of water pipe.
00:23How and why.
00:25In the early 50s over a 1 km distance a scooter reached a speed of over 200 km per hour
00:31our why British mods on scooters got into bloody brawls with rockers
00:36and how all of Europe went crazy over scooters and then rejected them.
00:58The Lambretta owes its birth to the Italian industrialist Ferdinando Innocenti.
01:03Before the war he mastered the production of seamless water pipes
01:07and decided to launch it on a grand scale.
01:09In 1931, on the outskirts of Milan, he built a factory that employed over 6000 people.
01:16Business was going well, but then the war broke out.
01:20Ferdinando Innocenti's factory was bombed by Allied aircraft,
01:23which was, after all, a predictable fate for a major industrial facility.
01:27After Italy's surrender, Innocenti set his mind on reviving the pipe business
01:32and launching the production of something that would be in high demand and turn a profit.
01:37The entrepreneur's keen mind told him that post-war Italy desperately needed mass market,
01:41affordable and simple transportation.
01:43Coors were out of the question due to their high metal consumption
01:46while motorcycles were impractical and required high manufacturing standards.
01:50That's when he set his sights on scooters.
01:52Designing such machines was fast and building them was inexpensive.
01:57Besides, high-quality tubing made by Signor Innocenti himself was readily available,
02:03which was more than good enough to form the frame of the future vehicle.
02:08To bring the idea to life, Innocenti brought in aeronautical engineer Corradino Dascagno,
02:13asked him to creatively develop the scooter concept and made one condition non-negotiable.
02:18The design had to use tubing.
02:20Dascagno, who despised motorcycles and anything with two wheels for their impracticality,
02:24gritted his teeth and promised to come up with something.
02:27From his drafting table emerged a scooter unusual for its time,
02:30with a fair share of automotive design in its construction.
02:33First, the enclosed bodywork. Second, the fit-together riding position.
02:38Third, all components and assemblies were mounted not to a frame,
02:42but directly to the body of the scooter.
02:44Just like they're mounted to the unibody of a car.
02:47Everything was great, but there wasn't a single tube.
02:50Needless to say, Dascagno's idea was rejected.
02:52However, the former aircraft designer was quick on his feet
02:55and reached out to Enrico Piaggio, who was also planning the mass production of motor scooters.
03:01Piaggio appreciated the project, gave the green light for the mass production of the moped designed by Dascagno.
03:07And in 1946, the Vespa hit the bumpy Italian roads.
03:12In Essenzi, meanwhile, didn't lose heart, but called upon two engineers,
03:17Cesare Pallavicino and Pier Luigi Torre, also from the aviation field.
03:22Pallavicino had previously been the chief engineer at the Caproni factory,
03:25which made military aircraft for Italy.
03:28The two designers treated the main products of Signor Innocenti's factory with due respect.
03:33The scooter they came up with was practically made entirely of tubes.
03:38By the way, during development, the guys took inspiration from the airborne scooters of the allied armies,
03:44such as the Cushman and Wellbike, for example.
03:47The design turned out to be very rigid and surprisingly durable.
03:51The scooter was named Lambretta after the Lambro River, which flowed near the factory.
03:57The Lambretta debuted a few months after the Vespa in 1947.
04:03The initial production plans aimed for around 150 scooters a day,
04:08but due to a shortage of resources and electricity, the actual numbers were closer to 12.
04:14But by the following year around 70 scooters were being produced a day,
04:19and exports to the US and Argentina had begun.
04:22The first Lambretta model, the Lambretta 125M, or Model A,
04:27was produced from October 1947 to October 1948.
04:31Unlike the Vespa, the first Lambretta turned out to be utilitarian in the extreme.
04:37Both wheels were cantilever mounted.
04:39The rear wheel was rigidly attached to the frame.
04:42Shocks from potholes were cushioned by the spring-loaded driver and passenger seats.
04:46Right beneath them was the fuel tank, from which fuel gravity fed into the carburetor.
04:52There was no need to install an expensive and finicky fuel pump.
04:56Based on the same considerations of simplicity, it was suggested to run Lambretta's two-stroke engines
05:01on a premix of gasoline and oil.
05:03The engine itself was located under the fuel tank and was forced air cooled by a fan.
05:09The scooter could reach up to 72 km per hour hour end.
05:13It could travel around 70 km on a single liter of fuel mix.
05:17A 125cc displacement.
05:20And a three-speed transmission with a foot shifter.
05:23The first and last time such a mechanism was used on Lambretta scooters.
05:27Later on, the gear shifting was implemented with a twist grip on the handlebars.
05:32In 1948, a 125b model came out, which fixed the flaws of the first one,
05:39as well as the 125c, a faster sports version.
05:44Thanks to its simple design, the Lambretta could be repaired practically anywhere,
05:48using a few wrenches, a screwdriver, a couple of rags and a can of engine oil.
05:54Italians voted with their lira for its reliability and maintainability.
05:57Scooters made by the Innocenti factory flooded the entire country.
06:02Over the first five years of production,
06:04just under 200,000 units of the model A, B and C scooters were sold.
06:13From the very inception of the Vespa and Lambretta scooters,
06:17these two became sworn rivals for the next decade.
06:21The companies tried every way possible to one-up each other.
06:24One method was record-breaking speedruns, which began back in the late 40s,
06:29and within a few years pushed past the point of absurdity.
06:31In the late 40s, Lambretta reigned supreme in the world of speed.
06:36For this, a special version of the scooter was created based on the model C.
06:41Its 125cc engine produced 13hp at 8800rpm thanks to forced induction.
06:50The power was three times greater than that of the standard scooter.
06:54The machine used a fairly standard front and rear suspension,
06:57with a frame made of small diameter tubes.
07:01Special 3x3x12 inch Pirelli tires were installed,
07:04and the entire machine was clad in a streamlined aluminum body.
07:08In March of 49 on the Montellerie track in France,
07:11the Lambretta scooter set 33 world records all at once during a 24-hour run.
07:16No one believed in such success and the judges weren't prepared for it.
07:20Evening was falling.
07:22In theory, the scooter should have fallen apart long ago.
07:25The riders took turns at the handlebars, but it just kept going and going.
07:29By nightfall, they urgently had to call in a backup team of judges to take over.
07:34The only problem was the headlight bulb burning out.
07:37Because of it, they had to make several emergency stops to replace it.
07:41The results were as follows.
07:422,467 km in 24 hours and an average speed of 102.8 km per hour.
07:52And after that marathon, to the public's amazement, the machine was more alive than ever.
07:58The following year, fitted with an aerodynamic fairing, the Lambretta set another six speed records.
08:05Piaggio's engineers were quite pissed off by these events.
08:08And in 1950, they rolled out their own weapon onto the track, the Vespa Vestac scooter.
08:14That same year, the new Vespa set several world records.
08:18And a year later, they unveiled an even more formidable weapon, the Vespa Siluro scooter.
08:23The Vespa Siluro set one of the most prestigious records, the so-called flying kilometer.
08:29On a highway near Rome, it covered a kilometer in 21.4 seconds at an average speed of 171.1
08:37km per hour.
08:40But then came the competitor's response, and Innocenti introduced its own torpedo.
08:45Yes, it was called the exact same thing, Lambretta Siluro.
08:49But for its color, shape, and most importantly speed, it was nicknamed the Red Bullet.
08:55The entire scooter was completely encased in a red plexiglass shell that totally concealed the rider.
09:01As early as April 1951, the Red Bullet with rider Romolo Ferry achieved a fantastic result in the flying kilometer.
09:08Averaging a speed of 190 kilometers per hour, hour, and improved to 198.5 kilometers per hour, hour.
09:18But Innocenti decided not to stop there either.
09:22The coveted 200 kilometers per hour or milestone was just too close.
09:25It took a few attempts, but that too was conquered.
09:28On the stretch between Munich and Ingolstadt, with Romolo Ferry in the saddle,
09:33the Red Bullet covered a kilometer at an average speed of 201.8 kilometers per hour.
09:39After that milestone, the Piaggio engineers threw in the towel
09:43and decided not to sink any more money into the arms race.
09:47Lambretta, having claimed victory in that showdown, shut down their program as well.
09:54If you thought that was the end of Lambretta's racing days, you couldn't be more wrong.
10:01Throughout their entire run, Innocenti scooters competed wherever they could.
10:05Circuit races, endurance runs, rallies, you name it.
10:11And here are some photos from the Isle of Man in 1951.
10:15Records show that three Lambrettas competed in the lightweight race.
10:19However, I couldn't find any further information.
10:25In the early 50s, even though the scooter business hadn't yielded significant profits yet,
10:30Innocenti began to seriously consider producing real motorcycles.
10:34One of the prototypes was a 125cc lightweight bike, showcased at the Milan trade show in 1949.
10:42In 50, Signor Innocenti hired the engineer Luigi Salmaggi,
10:47who developed a 250cc V-Twin four-stroke engine.
10:53Several prototypes were built, and one of them was tested in Monza, where it showed great promise.
10:59But the plans were shelved after an agreement was reached with Moto Guzzi,
11:04stating that they would not enter the scooter market on the condition that Lambretta abandoned any plans to produce motorcycles.
11:12Coincidentally or not, Moto Guzzi's V7, which turned the company's fortunes around, bore an uncanny resemblance to Salmaggi's design.
11:21Lambretta scooters took a step toward a more modern look in 1952 with the release of the 125 LC model,
11:29which received numerous updates and a more ergonomic design.
11:32That was the model that kicked off Lambretta's massive global expansion.
11:37In Australia, to make a name for themselves, Lambretta's took part in various competitions, mostly endurance races, and performed remarkably
11:44well.
11:45And on the other side of the world, in Brazil, Lambretta scooters became so popular that the name became a
11:51generic term, much like Xerox did for office equipment in Russia.
11:55In the early 60s, the European economy experienced the second post-war boom, which Lambretta was fully prepared for.
12:04The marketers of Innocentis' industrial empire understood consumer demands perfectly, and back in the late 50s they offered the market
12:12the hugely successful Series 1,
12:14which was continuously upgraded practically until the company's business went under.
12:19Two-wheeled vehicles were expected to be less and less utilitarian and more and more about fun and style.
12:26Smooth lines, full body work, speed, agility and traditional reliability once again worked in Lambretta's favor.
12:35By the way, the large diameter tube that ran like a spine through the scooter's entire body, from the steering
12:40head to the tail,
12:41also functioned as an air duct, delivering cool air to the carburetor and the engine.
12:48The scooter's ergonomics also turned out to be quite unconventional.
12:52For example, gears in the 4-speed transmission were shifted by twisting the left handlebar grip, which was linked to
12:57the clutch lever.
12:59That very sense of fun, which the target audience of Italian scooters needed so much, would have been impossible without
13:04powerful engines.
13:06Innocentis' engineers offered engines with displacements of 125, 150 and 175 cubic centimeters.
13:13A bit later, they were joined by a 200cc engine offered for the fastest and most expensive Lambretta, the GP200.
13:22This model was produced during the company's twilight years in very limited numbers.
13:35The origin of Gori's legendary tuning parts dates back to 1958 in Florence, in his father's small workshop.
13:44A lot of work was done there on early Lambretta models, who was constantly improving his products and bringing new
13:51innovative parts to the market.
13:53To this day, Gori Elaborazioni products in Italy, such as seats, exhaust systems and cylinders, remain well known in the
14:02scooter scene around the world.
14:03On October 25, 1965, at the Monza circuit, Vasco Gori set several unofficial speed records.
14:13Gori's highest mark was a speed of 162.85 kilometers per hour on a Lambretta television 175, with a cowling
14:23from the 200 model.
14:28Naturally, mods couldn't overlook premium scooters.
14:31Young hedonists, who spent practically all the money they earned on expensive, trendy clothes, music and entertainment.
14:39And their entertainment consisted of nightclubs, booze and dope.
14:43By the way, amphetamine was legal back then, and the sheer frequency and enthusiasm with which they used it, was
14:50one of the reasons it was eventually banned.
14:53At the height of their popularity, these people from the working and lower middle classes were just as recognizable a
15:00feature of Britain as the Rolling Stones and the Queen Mother.
15:04They considered motorcycles too uncomfortable and dirty to ride in their expensive, sharp suits.
15:10Lambrettans and Vespans became the mods' trademark.
15:14The scooter quickly turned from a convenient mode of transportation into a cult status symbol and a means of self
15:21-expression.
15:22While rockers loved modifying their motorcycles from the inside, boosting performance and swapping parts.
15:29Mods adored turning their metal-bodied steeds into wildly painted crazy installations.
15:35The conflict between rockers and mods was largely a class conflict.
15:39Mods wanted to look as if they all came from London's affluent middle class, whereas their rivals embraced the image
15:47of wild outcasts and mean bikers from American movies.
15:51Rockers and mods hated each other so much that, after dancing on amphetamines, they often had fun by bashing each
15:58other's faces in and wrecking each other's scooters and motorcycles.
16:02Rockers would raid mod clubs on their motorbikes.
16:05The mods wouldn't back down and rode their scooters out of town to beat up the motorcyclists.
16:11The biggest clash was the Battle of Brighton, which lasted from May 18th through 19th, 1964.
16:18Back then, over the Easter weekend, a large group of mods headed to the beaches of resort towns to throw
16:24a massive party.
16:25A few days earlier, another similar attempt had failed.
16:29A smaller squad of mods was brutally beaten by local rockers.
16:33The second time around, the mods went not only in greater numbers, but also armed with switchblades and clubs.
16:40When they arrived, rockers were waiting in ambush, who launched at the enemy with chains and knives.
16:46The ensuing brawl sparked several major clashes across four more towns in the south of the country.
16:52The police, unprepared for such battles, couldn't quell the conflict for a long time.
16:57Both sides were mobile, and the troops of both factions moved chaotically from town to town until they were completely
17:03exhausted after two days of non-stop skirmishes.
17:06The wave of violence subsided, and the cops were only able to detain 60 people, which was just a drop
17:11in the bucket compared to the sea of brawlers.
17:13It was hardly surprising that after this, the country was swept up in a media-driven hysteria.
17:18Mods were branded as spawns of hell and hardened gangsters.
17:22It is quite possible that, thanks to this, the movement, which was already on the decline back then, managed to
17:28hold on for a few more years.
17:30Mods were once again associated with coolness and the underground scene, rather than schoolboys on scooters.
17:36By the mid-60s, mods had become such a widespread phenomenon that mutations within the scene were simply inevitable.
17:43Just as it was inevitable that youth would sooner or later lose interest in this phenomenon and find themselves something
17:49more underground.
17:55And so we approached the 70s.
17:57By this time, the European market had become fairly saturated with scooters.
18:02The demand for them as simple utilitarian transport was shrinking, while cars were becoming affordable even for people of modest
18:09means.
18:09The scooter renaissance never truly began, despite cutting-edge engineering solutions in motor scooter design.
18:15It is worth mentioning that Lambretta scooters were actually the first two-wheelers to feature hydraulic disc brakes.
18:22But innovation couldn't save the company.
18:25The motorcycle division of Innocenti's industrial empire wasn't doing well, so it was sold to the British Leyland Motor Corporation.
18:33Instead of being a business cherished and nurtured by its previous owner, scooter manufacturing became just one of many ventures
18:41for the United Kingdom's engineering corporation.
18:44It was the end.
18:45In 1972, production of the legendary scooters in their historic homeland was shut down.
18:55The seemingly dead Lambretta was given a chance at a second life, but this time in India, where by the
19:01mid-70s, just like in post-war Italy, there was an urgent need for cheap and reliable transport for millions
19:07of citizens.
19:08Negotiations by Automobile Products of India, and somewhat later Scooters India Limited, with the owners of the equipment and tooling
19:16were a success, and licensed scooter production opened in India.
19:21The peak of production came in the 1980-1981 fiscal year, when around 30,000 to 35,000 scooters were
19:28built.
19:29However, by 1987, this number dropped to around 4,000 to 4,500, and production finally ceased in 1997.
19:38History repeated itself.
19:40The Indian market became saturated with scooters, creating a need for a different class of transport,
19:45and Lambretta's proven components and assemblies began to be used in the production of light three-wheeled delivery trucks, similar
19:52to Thai tuk-tuks.
19:54In 2010, the Lambretta Consortium filed a lawsuit against Scooters India Limited for non-use of the Lambretta brand, seeking
20:02to reclaim the trademark.
20:04That same year, 2010 three models were introduced, designed by Alessandro Tartarini, who had previously collaborated with another scooter brand,
20:12Italjet.
20:15Motorcycle journalists, who had the chance to ride the revived machines, complained about the derivative look of the scooters and
20:22the less-than-stellar build and paint quality.
20:25In 2017 three, more scooter models came out.
20:29All in all, for now, the revival of the legend looks far from convincing.
20:37Even though authentic made in Italy, Lambrettas have been out of production for a long time, Europe, with its strong
20:43motorcycle culture, still honors these legendary scooters.
20:47There are tons of Lambretta enthusiast clubs, with especially many in the UK and Germany.
20:53There are dedicated workshops that specialize exclusively in restoring and tuning Lambrettas.
20:59The scooters themselves cost quite a bit of money.
21:01The simplicity of the design and the durability of the base platform paved the way for some hardcore Lambretta modding.
21:08Enthusiasts swap out their scooters' ignition coils, carburetors, reed valves, port the cylinders, select custom pistons and connecting rods, install
21:17exhaust pipes with giant expansion chambers, and do a whole lot more.
21:21YouTube is backed with videos of twin-cylinder Lambrettas pushing well over 50 horsepower pulling wheelies at just half throttle.
21:31An ancient-looking scooter goes from 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds and effortlessly hits 160 km per hour
21:38-hour.
21:39And finally, it's worth mentioning some facts about Lambretta in pop culture.
21:44According to statistics from the IMCDB website, the Lambie has appeared in 10 movies.
21:49The most popular model for movies turned out to be the LD-125.
21:54The most famous of the films was Quadrophenia from 1979, based on the 1973 album of the same name by
22:03The Who.
22:05Critics absurdly dismissed the film as a pathetic attempt to revive interest in the faded British band.
22:12However, much later, Total Film magazine unexpectedly placed Quadrophenia among the top British films of all time.
22:20The Lambretta LD-125, which the main character rides along a path by the cliff, is destroyed after crashing onto
22:27the rocks below.
22:28Such is the story of the rise and bankruptcy of the legendary scooter brand Lambretta, the story of the scooter
22:35boom era.
22:36With that, my story comes to an end.
22:40If you liked the video, please don't forget to support it by subscribing, sharing and leaving a comment.
22:46It helps grow the channel and supports future stories.
22:49You've been watching the CrossMoto channel.
22:52Until next time.
22:54Bye.