The long-awaited new Lambretta finally broke cover in Italy at the weekend, revealed to the press and public during the Lambretta 70th Anniversary Euro rally it was always going to polarise opinion.
It was a brave move by the company, introducing something new bearing THE name in front of 2,000 Lambretta fans could easily backfire, but in some ways it was a cheeky tactic guaranteed to be spread around the world via the power of social media.
Sticky was at the Euro Lambretta rally, where the scooter was unveiled for a second time following a Friday press launch in Padova. However, the promised chance to ride the V-Special never materialised. Later this week he will update us with a video of people’s reactions and thoughts but for now we’ll have a quick look around the Lambretta V-Special. We covered the speculation and interest in our Vendetta series, and were pretty close with our assumptions. You can revisit the story here.
Progression
The reintroduction of an iconic brand name, a beloved marque still coveted many years after the closure of the Innocenti plant in Milan, as well as other Lambretta factories around the world, is always going to be controversial. A brand name as important to die-hard Lambretisti as Lambretta is worth its weight in original spec TV 175s. As a result a major percentage of original Lambretta riders aren’t going to like it unless it comes with a two-stroke engine, four speed gearbox and those little character traits we all love to hate from the original machines (character traits that many Brits spent hot days trying to fix as they rode to Italy last week).
If Lambretta had survived they too would have phased out geared two stroke scooters to meet stringent emissions laws. Their scooters would have evolved, as much as we’d hate to admit it. Thousands of Lambretta fans would be riding around on an up to date Lambretta auto equivalent of the Vespa GTS. Well here it is, although admittedly the name and heritage is bought, not bred.
This new Lambretta is brought to you by KISKA, a world-renowned Austrian design house. They sought help and inspiration from Italian Lambretta enthusiasts during the design and development stage but simply copying what went before was never an option.
Semi-Monocoque frame
The V-special comes with a ‘semi-monocoque’ frame, using 1.2mm thick steel sections over a Y-shaped tubular frame produced – as we predicted – by Taiwanese giants SYM. The underlying chassis and engine appear to come from the SYM Fiddle 3 scooter.
Engine
The V-Special will come initially as an automatic 50, 125 and 200 (actually 169cc), and an electric version will follow in 2018. All will be Euro 4 compliant. The firm also suggest that performance modifications won’t be forgotten…
Lambretta is anticipating on the requests of a segment of die-hard Lambrettisti that wish to extend their collection with upgraded versions.
GP and SX 200
Aside from the V-Special, Lambretta will also be reintroducing Euro 4 versions labelled GP snd SX. If we’d told you ten years ago that in the future you could buy an electric Lambretta SX you’d have said we were mad!
Copycats
The Dutchman behind new Lambretta, Walter Scheffrahn, in his presentation speech at Adria, promised to protect the Lambretta brand from Chinese copycats using the Lambretta name. His company were already behind legal action that blocked Motom’s Lambretta LN from sale (which ironically was also based on SYM cycle parts and engine). In a statement Lambretta GmbH said “Currently the global market is flooded with replicas of classic Lambrettas from China, India and Thailand. Lugano based Innocenti SA, the mother company of Lambretta has recently announced that it will take a strict stance on all copycats and their distributors avoiding free riding on the repute of Lambretta.”
Some might take this as a thinly-veiled threat against the popular Scomadi and the currently-delayed Royal Alloy (previously Royalloy) scooters, however it is difficult to see what possible grounds Innocenti SA have for this, given that neither machine uses the Lambretta name.
There’s every chance of further legal action over the Lambretta name itself. We already reported on legal action coming from Scooters India Limited (SIL), which is owned by the Indian government, in a story about the trademark back in April, which you can catch up on here.
Word on the street and comments
We’ll have more info, photos from Adria and opinions from people who have seen the Lambretta V-Special ‘in the flesh’ later in the week but for now just have a look through the photos. If you’re a die-hard traditional scooterist try not to choke on your Cornflakes but feel free to comment and let us know what you think.
Photos: KSR Group GmbH
Words: Iggy
Below is a video of the first scooterist reactions to the scooter’s first public showing from our report on the 70th anniversary Euro-Lambretta rally. in Adria, Italy.
For our full SLUK analysis article on the V-Special launch click here.
VIDEO – SLUK was at the launch for the V-Special at Adria. What did Lambrettisti make of it?
The long-awaited new Lambretta finally broke cover in Italy at the weekend, revealed to the press and public during the Lambretta 70th Anniversary Euro rally it was always going to polarise opinion.
It was a brave move by the company, introducing something new bearing THE name in front of 2,000 Lambretta fans could easily backfire, but in some ways it was a cheeky tactic guaranteed to be spread around the world via the power of social media.
Sticky was at the Euro Lambretta rally, where the scooter was unveiled for a second time following a Friday press launch in Padova. However, the promised chance to ride the V-Special never materialised. Later this week he will update us with a video of people\’s reactions and thoughts but for now we\’ll have a quick look around the Lambretta V-Special. We covered the speculation and interest in our Vendetta series, and were pretty close with our assumptions. You can revisit the story here.
Progression
The reintroduction of an iconic brand name, a beloved marque still coveted many years after the closure of the Innocenti plant in Milan, as well as other Lambretta factories around the world, is always going to be controversial. A brand name as important to die-hard Lambretisti as Lambretta is worth its weight in original spec TV 175s. As a result a major percentage of original Lambretta riders aren\’t going to like it unless it comes with a two-stroke engine, four speed gearbox and those little character traits we all love to hate from the original machines (character traits that many Brits spent hot days trying to fix as they rode to Italy last week).
If Lambretta had survived they too would have phased out geared two stroke scooters to meet stringent emissions laws. Their scooters would have evolved, as much as we\’d hate to admit it. Thousands of Lambretta fans would be riding around on an up to date Lambretta auto equivalent of the Vespa GTS. Well here it is, although admittedly the name and heritage is bought, not bred.
This new Lambretta is brought to you by KISKA, a world-renowned Austrian design house. They sought help and inspiration from Italian Lambretta enthusiasts during the design and development stage but simply copying what went before was never an option.
Semi-Monocoque frame
The V-special comes with a \’semi-monocoque\’ frame, using 1.2mm thick steel sections over a Y-shaped tubular frame produced – as we predicted – by Taiwanese giants SYM. The underlying chassis and engine appear to come from the SYM Fiddle 3 scooter.
Engine
The V-Special will come initially as an automatic 50, 125 and 200 (actually 169cc), and an electric version will follow in 2018. All will be Euro 4 compliant. The firm also suggest that performance modifications won\’t be forgotten…
Lambretta is anticipating on the requests of a segment of die-hard Lambrettisti that wish to extend their collection with upgraded versions.
GP and SX 200
Aside from the V-Special, Lambretta will also be reintroducing Euro 4 versions labelled GP snd SX. If we\’d told you ten years ago that in the future you could buy an electric Lambretta SX you\’d have said we were mad!
Copycats
The Dutchman behind new Lambretta, Walter Scheffrahn, in his presentation speech at Adria, promised to protect the Lambretta brand from Chinese copycats using the Lambretta name. His company were already behind legal action that blocked Motom\’s Lambretta LN from sale (which ironically was also based on SYM cycle parts and engine). In a statement Lambretta GmbH said \”Currently the global market is flooded with replicas of classic Lambrettas from China, India and Thailand. Lugano based Innocenti SA, the mother company of Lambretta has recently announced that it will take a strict stance on all copycats and their distributors avoiding free riding on the repute of Lambretta.\”
Some might take this as a thinly-veiled threat against the popular Scomadi and the currently-delayed Royal Alloy (previously Royalloy) scooters, however it is difficult to see what possible grounds Innocenti SA have for this, given that neither machine uses the Lambretta name.
There\’s every chance of further legal action over the Lambretta name itself. We already reported on legal action coming from Scooters India Limited (SIL), which is owned by the Indian government, in a story about the trademark back in April, which you can catch up on here.
Word on the street and comments
We\’ll have more info, photos from Adria and opinions from people who have seen the Lambretta V-Special \’in the flesh\’ later in the week but for now just have a look through the photos. If you\’re a die-hard traditional scooterist try not to choke on your Cornflakes but feel free to comment and let us know what you think.
Photos: KSR Group GmbH
Words: Iggy
Below is a video of the first scooterist reactions to the scooter\’s first public showing from our report on the 70th anniversary Euro-Lambretta rally. in Adria, Italy.
For our full SLUK analysis article on the V-Special launch click here.
Despite the hatchet job inspired buy it’s competition, I think the new Lambretta is a winner, the styling of the exhaust is not the greatest but most riders tend to change it anyway. I particularly like the orange color as the black trim pieces looks far nicer than the over abundance of aluminum looking parts the other models tend to have. But each to their own. Would I buy one ? yes I will.
You wouldn’t happen to work for a Lancashire based scooter and motorcycle importer would you Harry?
Hi Ian I don’t and never have lmao.
After some initial shock/horror, I tried to look beyond my bias towards original Lambrettas and found this was not that bad. The design of the frame is quite clever. Yes, it’s not a Lammy that we all know and love/hate. But there has to be some evolution to the brand. Doesn’t mean flying scooters “a la” Jetsons, but something practical. This should give Vespa a run for their money if they can get the mechanical gremlins sorted out (so many Scomadi owners flogging their 2 year old machines already – why is that?).
A 200cc or higher model should help push sales and if they market the USA, they might be successful. So many GTS’s on the roads here due to higher engine displacement. Now if we can all upgrade our SX’s to 250 or 350 we wouldn’t need these modern versions, but there are mechanical limits to the older machines. Swapping out the Innocenti engine for a Yamaha engine or similar is a solution – but is it still a Lambretta or just in name only? Food for thought….
I really like it, I think the design team have done a good job looks cheeky, it has some desinctive Lambretta styling, frame looks good. Does look different to a classic Lambretta but should be welcomed at scooter clubs as are Scomadis and GTS’s . I’ll stick with my 1980 GP 200 but nice job. Some people will buy it, I reckon the girls will like it, great brand name retro styling and modern engineering should be easy to maintain and run. It’ll never be as much fun as a geared 2 stroke but that’s not for everyone as old Lambrettas need a lot of fiddling and fathering .
If there’s one scooter that represents the evolution of what a 21st century Lambretta should look like then its a Scomadi.
Lambretta GmbH have already been beaten off the start line for looks and probably power (Scomadi 200 is a 180cc)
Still a newly produced scooter is good for choice and I’m sure it will attract sales.
Not a bad effort, but it is always going to be a struggle to do anything as good as a series 3 Lambretta. I’ve always preferred Lambrettas, but if I wanted a genuine Italian but modern scooter I’d buy a Vespa. It will be interesting to see if Brandconcern manage to wrestle the Lambretta name from SIL, if not Serveta is probably up for grabs…
i miss the 80s… No stupid eu bollocks or mid-life crisis clowns…
Seen it in the flesh and l
Does not do the lambretta name justice from any angle . Like the Dutch but leave design to the Italians
not too bad. but I suppose they’ll want 800 over the sym fiddle for a lammy badge
Very Cento/Starstream like in IMHO.
For me that is a good thing as a fan of smallframe Lammies.
I emailed them last year and raged at them for not having a fixed mudguard, asserting that the Darwinesque evolutionary winners of the scooter world, Lambretta and Vespa were the apex predators because they were male and female forms, as in nature. A Lammy must have a fixed mudguard or it is a Lamby Polo…an ugly hybrid which lacks the beauty of both parents.
Whatever, it is good to see more choice in quality retro styled scooters. Metal gets my vote over plastic anyday.
These are all ugly as fugly can be.
These are shite. No two ways about it.
If you are going to make a retro classic do it properly not a half-hearted turd.