More good PR for Piaggio: A recent study exposed a 1942 plan hatched by the Fascists and Piaggio test pilot Niccolò Lama to bomb New York City from a Piaggio P-23R airplane flying from France. (Thirty-five years later, their dreams would be realized when the P-series Vespa arrived on American soil.)
Category: History
Vespalizzatevi
A must-see from motoblog.it: A beautiful stop-motion animation of the history of the Vespa featuring toys, illustrations, and vintage posters and photographs.
Can an Adly pull a pop-up camper?
If the Lambretta tent video we posted a few months ago was inspiring, but a tent just isn’t “all-mod-cons” enough for you, check out this video from the same source (Britsh Pathe Archives): a Lambretta towing a pop-up camper. I can’t imagine that it was wise to load a 150 or 175cc engine, even when factory-fresh, with a pop-up camper AND a boat AND gear AND a pillion passenger AND a sidecar with a child. (Thanks, Dan Epstein, who sent this so long ago he surely forgot about it.)
Vicious Cycles
Dave McCabe has long been searching for a short film he remembers seeing before Star Wars or Indiana Jones at the Polar Theater in Anchorage. He finally found it on good ol’ YouTube. Despite a resurgence in popularity in the 80s, Vicious Cycles was actually made in 1969. It’s a goofy live-action stop-motion animated film featuring the grungy Vicious Cycles MC facing off against the bowler-hat-clad Mild Ones Scooter Club. If nothing else, it proves the go-to newspaper headline “Mild Ones” (drink!) was already an old joke in 1969. It’s fantastic and authentic, right down to the squeaky Vespa drum brake sound. Stick around ’til the end for a Coke ad featuring vintage motorcycles and a public service announcement about loud pipes.
Three vintage Vespa commercials
Three fantastic old Vespa commercials in one YouTube video. The “beefeater” spot (first) is so Austin Powers that it seems like it couldn’t really be from that era, but actually a 90s parody of Swinging London. It’s amazing that in 15 years of Vespa nerdery, I’ve never seen the first two commercials, YouTube never gets boring.
Return of the Fiat 500
Manufacturers and marketers have sucked the efficiency and economy out of the Vespa, Beetle, and Mini, by repositioning them as upscale nostalgia items, so you just knew the Fiat Cinquecento would be next. It’s weird that you have to dig around the site to find actual photos of the car itself. The interior is handsome, but the body is not mind-blowing, nor does it evoke the original as successfully as the other retro-vehicles on the market.
Update In the five minutes since I posted this I learned that the car will be built in Poland and will be fairly inexpensive compared to the Beetle and Mini. Plus, the design is growing on me, I didn’t notice the rolltop at first. I just think the appeal of the Mini and 500 was in the paint and chrome and that’s all gone.
More Calendars (the old kind)
Rockin’ with the J.C. Penney Mods
NYC freeform radio station WFMU has unearthed a long-forgotten fad of the sixties: the “corporate musical.” One such musical, J.C. Penney’s “Spirit of 66,” featured a tribute to our well-dressed, pill-popping, basement-club-dwelling friends across the Atlantic: Rockin’ with the Mods. Crazy. (Thanks, Coudal.)
Dance Crazes of the Sixties
Handy for the next rally: if this isn’t the land of a thousand dances, I don’t know what is.
St. Louis Motomuseum/Motofest
St. Louis’ new Moto Museum is hosting a “History of the Motorcycle” exhibit featuring 100 bikes from 100 years, concurrent with the first St. Louis International Motorcycle Festival, April 26-29, 2007. It appears that the show will be the only public display of the collection, so it’s not a “museum” so much a “Jay Leno’s garage.” (You’d think Lu$ would keep us abreast of StL news, but no, this one came from Matthew, thanks!)
VW bus graphics bonanza
Speaking of VWs (see below), here’s an amazing gallery of VW Bus graphics. Not directly scooter-related, but there are some amazing Vespa paint scheme ideas in there. (Via my employer and Draplin.)
Portanje’s Nostalgia Collection
Kees Portanje’s famous Vespa museum has expanded their website since we last checked in (it’s been a few years!). The site now features hundreds of photos of Portanje’s scooters, album covers, posters, toys, and more. Good to know that the first three issues of 2strokebuzz are tucked away in a folder in a cabinet somewhere on the premises, waiting for a wave of mid-90s scooter-scene nostalgia.
Is the “Lambretta” name alive in Sri Lanka?
Following worldwide scooter news, I’ve occasionally seen stories from Sri Lanka, usually in business news or stock reports, mentioning “Lambretta (Ceylon) Ltd.” or “Lambretta Motors.” From what I can tell, Lambretta (Ceylon) Ltd. once manufactured Lambretta scooters in Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka), but was acquired in 2000 by a dairy company. It appears that company was renamed “Kotmale Holdings Ltd” in 2005, but I still see financial reports referring to “Lambretta Motors.” Surely there’s not an assembly line in Colombo secretly churning out SX200s, but I’d appreciate any information regarding Lambretta (Ceylon) Ltd and/or Lambretta Motors, if only because I’m curious about the name, whether they’re the same company or two separate companies, and what they’re doing these days.
Quadrophenia based on Skegness?
A Skegness newspaper actually found something interesting to write about Skegness. Actually, it’s a neat story, maybe Cy can track down the TV show it refers to. Can I find another excuse to say “Skegness?” I believe I just did!
Twisted Wheel remembered
The historic Mod and proto-northern-soul club, The Twisted Wheel gets a lovely writeup in the Manchester Evening News.