1957 Motorcycles Lambretta

For sale by auction with Historics at Brooklands, June 2nd 2010, Weybridge, UK.
Please note this lot is to be sold without reserve.
Lambretta was a line of motor scooters originally manufactured in Milan and deriving the name Lambretta from the small river Lambro in Milan which ran near to the factory. Ferdinando Innocenti of Pescia originally built a steel-tubing factory in Rome. He then took the business to Milan where he built a larger factory producing seamless steel tubing and employing about 6,000 people. During the Second World War however, the factory was heavily bombed but it is said that surveying the ruins, Innocenti saw the future of cheap, private transport and decided to produce a motor scooter, competing on cost and weather protection against the ubiquitous motorcycle. The main stimulus for the design style of the Lambretta and Vespa dates back to Pre-WWII scooters made in Nebraska, USA. These olive green scooters were in Italy in large numbers and used as field transpor