Primavera in Argentina

Right now it's summer in Argentina, lucky bastards!
This Vespa Primavera 1981 has not yet reached 500 km's.
Amazing! And you wonder, why did they buy it in the first place?
It was recently bought by my friend Raul in Buenos Aires. He's a keen Vespista and has other models as well. He wasn't looking for a Primavera, but the low mileage tipped him over.
Nice scoot, but would you dare use it? Adding more and more km's to the speedometer...
Raul also told me that when he was young his father had a Siambretta, the argentinian Lambretta built under license. The father always said: "I wish I someday can buy a Vespa".

Vespa PX - for children

A nice item for kids who has behaved well during the year. Maybe Babbo Natale (Santa Claus) will bring to someone?
Don't think so.
This one was for sale at the fair in Padova in October.
Good condition and the asking price was € 350. I guess it is driven by a battery. Not sure if that was included in the price.

Swedish Lambretta leaflet

Here's a sales leaflet from the Swedish Lambretta importer Bil & Truck from Gothenburg. Originally it was an article in the Swedish motor magazine "FART med motorrevy". Yes, sorry all of you who speaks English, but "fart" means speed in Swedish. Nothing else!
The magazine did a test drive of the Lambretta TV 175 in their fourth number 1958. Issued when it still was winter. The test driver couldn't really try the top speed or brakes, due to weather conditions. He also concluded that the clutch was hard to use in minus 8 degrees C!
Funny thing, though, the Swedish name was Lambretta 175 TV Turist. As you know TV stands for Turismo Veloce, so in Sweden it was Turismo Veloce Turist...
The FART magazine's driver liked the looks of the scooter, that it was well-equipped, the acceleration and the top speed thanks to the powerful engine.
Minus points were the difficulties to change gears in cold weather (Hey, it was built in Italy!).
It was definitely a positive article so the importer Bil & Truck had the article printed and provided the leaflets for their retailers.

Piquet won nine Vespas

In the 80's Piaggio launched a competition among the Formula 1 drivers. If you were the fastest in the qualifying, you won a Vespa in the "Piaggio Vespa Pole Position Trophy".
Nelson Piquet, the three times Formula 1-champion from Brazil, was in pole position nine times, and lay his hands on nine Vespas.
In the pic here is Alain Prost, according to the comment below, thanx. He obviously won at least once.
In 1985 Piaggio presented the T5 Pole Position, 11 hp at 6 700 rpm.

The Sei Giorni Vespas

Here is a nice little book. I picked it up at the Padova fair, although it was released in 2001 by CLD libri. The authors are Vespa collector and historian Giorgio Notari and original Sei Giorni "pilota" Giuseppe Cau.
The story is about the competition Vespas from the late 40's and early 50's. Mostly it deals with the 26th Sei Giorni (Six Days) Internazionale regularity trial in 1951. This was the first time Piaggio officially participated in a competition.
Ten works Vespas participated in the 125 cc class, and they obtained nine gold medals!
Lot's of fantastic pictures from the event, pictures of the rider's clothes, helmets, tools etc.
Hrm, only in italian so if you don't speak the language, the pictures has to tell the story. And they do!
Especially the presentation of four sports Vespas. Freshly taken studio pictures shows the details of a Vespa Sport 1951, the Vespa Sport "ufficiale Piaggio" 1951 (for Sei Giorni), the Vespa Sport I serie 1952 and the Vespa Sport Serie II 1953.
The three latter could reach 95 km/h, still from 125 cc, compared to the 65 km/h for the standard models. The output increased from 4,5-5 hp to 7 hp. The body was reinforced, the front shield narrowed and the engine side cowl enlarged. The front suspension was strengthened and the fuel tank enlarged to the capacity of 11 litres. The 23 mm carburettor sat directly on the cylinder and the clutch was reinforced to name a few alterations from stock Vespas.
The picture below was taken by me when I visited the Piaggio museum in 2010. The "ufficiale Piaggo" has the number 94, that Giuseppe Cau used to have. But I can't remember if it actually is his Vespa.

Vespa Sport "ufficiale Piaggio" sits at the museum in Pontedera.

The significant head lamp à la submarine...

Piccolino - an Iso scooter

My friend Janne from the north of Sweden put me on the right track regarding the Iso 150 cc scooter. He told me in a comment that "Piccolino" was the correct name for that scooter on the Swedish market, not "Milano" or "Diva".
To make his point he just sent me this pictures from the Swedish sales brochure. Below it says "Piccolino the scooter with top quality to a bottom price", or something in that way. The Iso Piccolino/Milano is often described as a clever mix between a Vespa and a Lambretta.

Some of the accessories for the Iso Piccolino.

Lambretta + Carello for Vespa

The headlamp in it's place.

I've been doing some scooter work as well as tending to my newly bought moped.
In order to get my Lambretta TV 175 series 1 going, I moved it to my friend Jim. He has the tools, a lathe, a weld and more, and he knows how to use them. The other day we started out with some of the electrics, it's certainly a tight fit in the headset.
Next task was to help me with the brackets for my Carello half moon fog lights. The ones bought at the Imola fair and that will end up on my Vespa 160 GS. Another friend had the crash bars, an original accessory from the 60's. Thank's, C!
Unfortunately the brackets I had bought had a inner dimension of 25 mm, and the crash bar tubes are 19 mm...
Jim made some washers on his lathe and the mounting was no problem, as you can se.
The chainguards, two of them, to my moped (motobici) Svalette was missing. With a strike of luck two spares can turn up the coming week. Fingers crossed...

It's a tight fit with the electrics and cables.

Not ready for start yet...

The Carello fog lights mounted on the crashbar...

...which will be fitted to my Vespa 160 GS.