Lambretta

Lambretta made a fearless attempt at becoming the premiere Italian scooter brand in the '50's and '60's. These scooters built in Milan were longer and sleeker than their more common, chubbier cousins wearing the Vespa and Allstate nameplates. Unlike other scooters, the Lambrettas used steel body panels attached to tubular frames. All models were piston-port two strokes of 50-200cc, and most of those imported here were either 125cc or 175cc. The Innocenti company built Lambrettas from 1947 to 1972, but most of the imported U. S. volume arrived in the early Sixties.

The photo shown here is of the cover of the 1963 brochure. During the Fifties and early Sixties, Jayne Mansfield was sort of the number two blonde bombshell celebrity in America. Following in the footsteps of Marilyn, she was featured in Playboy and a number of movies, but she also was the poster girl for Lambretta scooters. You could see her posing sexily on a Lambretta in numerous magazine ads and shop posters. You will find a few of these in the links below, but this scan from my personal collection is my favorite of the bunch. Like Marilyn, Jayne's life came to a premature, tragic end. She was killed instantly in a car accident between Biloxi, MS, and New Orleans in 1967, with daughter Mariska Hargitay (of Law & Order SVU) and two sons in the rear seat. The three adults in the front never left the Electra 225 alive, but all three kids in the rear did.

Vespas began production with their monocoque bodies a year prior to the Lambrettas, setting the scooter marketing stage for all time. Although Vespa has always had the production volume and name recognition, the Lambrettas appealed to buyers who wanted something a little less common. Most Lambrettas can be identified by their sleek, angular styling, and many had distinctive two-tone paint jobs, usually red and white, blue and white, or yellow and white. All had handshifts and manual clutches on the left handlebar with three or four forward gears, just like the Vespas. I have not been able to verify if any models after 1963 had oil injection, as did practically all street model Japanese tiddlers at the time. Since Lambrettas were rapidly shrinking in number in the U. S. as the '60's progressed, I suspect that oil injection was never developed for the models imported. How could any scooter compete with the zillions of successful tiddlers from The Big Four? I suspect that Vespa's contract with Sears did wonders for their sales success in this country. When I wax nostalgic for the Lambrettas of the Sixties, I am reminded of the Aprilias of today. The Lambretta 175 TV was sort of the Scarabeo of the '60's, the top dog of style and class.

The Lambretta page at Wikipedia
Lambretta photo gallery at EMU
Lambretta Works for modern enthusiasts
Lambretta Images Archive
The Cheap Chinese Scooter Phenomenon