On New Year's Eve in 1981 a French man bought a raffle ticket at the party thrown by the infamous Folies Bergère; as luck would have it he won

I'm sure that wasn't the kind of luck he was after that evening but we'll all take what we can get

The prize for Monsieur's good fortune was this rather charming little Vespa

When the prize was delivered to his home he was clearly underwhelmed and chose not to use, or even register, his brand new Vespa. Instead she lived under a blanket in his Parisian flat until only very recently when our friend discovered her

It is admittedly slightly unusual behaviour to have not even thought to give her away as a present if one was never going to make use of her oneself

But now today as a result of a stroke of good luck and a wonderfully French ambivalent attitude we have a brand new 1981 P80 Vespa

The engine has never been started, the fuel tank has never even had fuel in it and the original mixing pot for the 2 stroke is equally virgin.

We have the original tools as well

Inside the engine bay and on the body you can find reference stickers for the production line workers. It the 1980's in Pontedera Italy, long & flowing lunches... one can only image why they might have needed the reference stickers

These Vespa's do have a very loyal, almost cult-like, following much like the 911 does in the car world. As a result there are businesses who will restore & reimagine them to within an inch of their lives, al a Singer 911s, the cost of which can be very expensive

Such an unusual and rare item we're quite sure there isn't another like her anywhere in the world and never will be again

One for the connoisseur for sure