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.
Funny to think that Innocenti was that bad at public relations in those days. I think the current Italian manufacturers are a bit more savvy. In the winter, one would expect Ducati to fly all of the motorcycle press down to Italy to test drive the bikes.
ReplyDeleteAlso... "Fart Provoker" Hah hah hah...
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I couldn't resist.
-Paul