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It runs allright, it sure does. The engine is built by a scootering friend from Bergen in Norway, Stian Kaurel. it's a 256 cm3 engine and has all the goodie bits one can wish.
Full circle race crank, forged piston, Nikasil cylinder, CNC-worked cylinder head and a big
expansion exhaust pipe. On the dyno it puts out 35 hp and that's quite a lot when you
consider that the original engine had around 5-6 hp.
But everything is tuned to handle the power; brakes, springs, dampers...
and proper race dampers that are adjustable.
It's not like driving a normal bike. But this one never seems to stop pulling and with these
little 10 inch wheels it's easy to think that the bike should be a bit unstable.
But it's not and and the feeling when the Lambretta really sits on its wheels out of the corner is surprisingly good.
The inspiration of the creation, or the expression rather, is a fourfold hommage.
1. Racing with Lambrettas in the 60's and 70's in Great Britain using yellow numberplates
and also often an old English Smith's speedometer from for example BSA, Triumph and Norton, neatly shaped into the headset.
2. In the film "Le Mans", where Steve McQueen
starred as driver Michael Delaney as he raced a Gulf-Porsche 917 with the number 21
that was the car he took the chequered flag with. 3. In the late 60's Björn Waldegård succesfully
drove for Team Gulf Sweden in a Porsche 911, a nice vintage Swedish rally history.
4. And last, modern TeXtreme carbonfibre, as used in today's F1 cars, in the front I
have a more conventional carbon fibre... new racing history.
And today is actually the first time I drive this scooter in anger... driving fast and using the potential.
When I found this scooter it was just a pile of red painted pieces, and in one of boxes there was old number plate from Lebanon. I could not understand why it was there, but
when I did the research on the bike I found out that it was bought new in Beirut by a
Swedish school-teacher on a UN mission. I got in contact with one of his sons who told me that
he rode with his father and the Lambretta was so handy in the Beirut traffic.
He bought it in '64, the family moved home in 1965, they took the scooter with them and imported it to Sweden.
And this sign it has its special place... there it is.