Last weekend at a Straightliners Top Speed event at Elvington, British sprinter, Adie Horrocks blasted his smallframe Vespa down the runway at an astonishing 122mph.

As far as we’re aware, that’s faster than any Vespa has ever been officially recorded. It’s faster than the 1950s factory streamliner (103mph), faster than Tony O’Brien’s 116mph run set back in 2016 on his smallframe. It’s quite a bit faster than Keith Terry’s 110mph official FIM Lambretta world record on his full frame GP (although Keith has also set a 118mph top speed on his ‘Kursaal Flyer’ lowered and stretched Lambretta sprinter.

It’s also getting very close to Eric Cope’s Lambretta top speed of 127mph. Still not quite a match for Charlie Edmonds 142mph RD 350LC powered Lambretta though.

To achieve 122mph on a smallframe Vespa is astonishing, especially when you consider that the scooter has the stock Vespa Silhouette and doesn’t even use a screen for added aerodynamic efficiency. Just trying to keep a 10″ wheeled scooter straight on a bumpy old runway is a feat in itself. Adie is very modest about his recent achievement and told us “I’ve the upmost respect for anybody who sits on a scooter at these kind of speeds, no matter if it’s a scooter or bike engine. Just sitting on the thing impresses me.”

We’ve asked Adie to fill us in on some details about his sprinting and top speed career so far and of course how it feels to ride a Vespa at that kind of terminal velocity. Here’s what he had to say…

A trio of sprinters

From left to right, Adie’s 1/4 mile 150cc sprinter (you can read the spec later on), next is his new blue and yellow BFA-powered 55bhp 122mph top speed machine. Thirdly in an effort to increase the interest in scooter sprinting, Adie built the third scooter, that one is rented out to aspiring scooter sprinters to give them a taste of what it’s all about.

52-year-old Adie runs Green Light Scooters in Tewkesbury, he specialises in smallframes and engine building is his speciality. Get in touch if you want to ‘Rent a sprinter.’ 

How long have you been 1/4 mile/8th mile sprinting? Two years, I started in September 2020.

What made you get into it? I went to a sprint race on the spanners to support another scooter sprinter. I decided on that day to build a Vespa sprinter and two weeks later I was at my first sprint on the green Vespa smallframe sprinter (pictured above).

How did you get started? I literally tripped over an M200 engine I had in the run up stand and steadied my fall by holding onto a scooter frame that had been made for a scooter racer by Taylor Sturgess at Replay. Light bulb moment and over that weekend I had built the first prototype.

The frame and headset was from a 50 Special and the engine was a 30bhp Quattrini M200 built by Tony O’Brien/Charlie Edmonds.

Adie with his top speed scooter wondering how he can fit that engine in a smallframe…
Early results? Well it was a little harder than I imagined and I was getting 17 second 1/4 mile runs on my first day of sprinting. Then a few little modifications to the scooter were made and off I went up north to run an 1/8 mile, 10 second runs and I was happy with that.

What was the turning point for you in terms of improving times? In my first full season I replaced my M200 engine with a BFA/FRT 150cc engine and I ended up at 8.5 seconds by the end of the season. I’d gone from 10.5 to 8.5 in one season, so yeah the BFA/FRT engine was a changing point. The scooter had more changes to suit the style of sprinting I wanted to pursue which also helped with progression.

What’s the highlight of your sprinting career so far? It’s got to be sprinting against the BMW M3 with its 430 bhp engine with all its modern whistles and bells, plus I had my wife and friends with me on that day which made it very special as my wife is crazy supportive of what I do.
Tell us about the 1/4 mile scooter and engine spec? Three quarters of the way through this season I swapped frames to a Primmy with again more modifications, all to help with getting better 1/8 and 1/4 mile times.

Engine spec:

Engine casings: BFA
Cylinder: Liquid-cooled BFA/FRT 150 reversed barrel
Power: 43bhp
Torque: 15ft/lbs torque
Carb: 40.5mm
Clutch: 5 plate drag clutch
Ignition: Programable ignition
Gearbox: Sprint gearbox with long first & second gear, extra short 3rd gear and ultra-short 4th gear

Elvington Straightliners top speed event September 26th 2022

Unlike regular 1/4 mile sprinting, top speed events are few and far between, they’re also much more expensive to compete in. As such, Elvington was Adie’s first top speed event.

For this event an all-new scooter was needed. Enter the 250cc (pictured avove), running a complete reverse barrel, case-inducted liquid-cooled BFA motor making 55bhp.

Tell us about Elvington? Well Elvington has been a long time coming. One and a half years from the first idea to try and get 120mph on the mile to be actually doing it on its debut.

I was patient and work hard with the BFA/FRT guys to make sure we were all on the same sheet so the end product was exactly what I wanted. The first time I opened the 250 up I was impressed with how fast it accelerated, but of course I was going to have to hold it wide open for a considerable amount of time so I was apprehensive of course.

I had a few teething problems but easily sorted in the pits. It’s very relaxed at Elvington top speed events (as opposed to sprinting) as it’s all about the single rider on the track at any one time.

Ok, so third run I went for it, by Christ it flew and felt so smooth and stable I didn’t really try to be aerodynamic as I just wanted to see what it could do, 117 mph which instantly gave me the thirst for more.

Two more runs, both at 121 mph at the mile sealed the results for me, the engine sounded great as I got to the mile marker so I kept it pinned to the mile and a 1/4 and got the 122. I called it the end for that day and cracked a beer with my pit crew mates.

I reflected on how it felt doing 121 mph (or 122.38 mph at the mile and a 1/4) and it was nerve racking keeping it pinned for so long but I could hear the engine was running sweet at its 12,500/13,000 rpm so I was happy to try and get lower on the scooter to help with speed.

It felt ace and I knew it was fast.

Top speed is totally different from sprinting and I treat them as such, both ace though.

What are your future sprinting goals? Personal future goals are to secure more 7 second runs.
More importantly for me is to continue to try and help scooter sprinting grow, I have my first team rider here at Green Light Scooters, mentoring him and helping him to get faster is a great feeling. I ran a scooter shoot out the other week which was received really well by the NSA and the scooter riders and spectators that came, so more of that next year for sure.

Any sponsors or people you need to mention?

BFA
FRT
Absolute cars
On small wheels
RTS racing products
2TEngineering
Race Logic
Special thanks to my wife Catherine Horrocks
Mike and Gill Pacey
Glyn savage (chief pitman)
Nige Howard my Green Light Scooters team rider
Andrew Sharkey

Also thanks to: Phil Evans Images for the lead (122mph) photo and to Harvey Brewster for the use of one of his images.

Scooter shootout 2023 save the date

Straightliners will be holding a Scooter Shootout event on 20th August 2023 (probably at Elvington). If there are any scooter shops, tuners, pub braggers or road riders with fast scooters this will be the place to put those bar room stories to bed once and for all. The timing lights don’t lie.

If Scooter Shootout is anything like the one in 2011 it will be an awesome feast of two-stroke speed and power. We’ll keep you informed when a date is released.

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