1955 Lambretta Model F Scooter

Description

Born in 1891, Ferdinando Innocenti started out with a steel tubing factory in Rome during 1922 before expanding his business to Milan in 1931, where he established a second factory producing patented metal clamps for scaffolding.  By the time war broke out in Europe in 1939 Innocenti had risen to become of Italy’s leading industrialists and his company played a leading role in the war effort, supplying munitions to the Italian armed forces.  Following the destruction of much of Italy’s industrial base by Allied bombing, the company switched its focus to producing a small motor scooter for civilian use.  With a shortage of materials and few families able to afford a motor car in the immediate post-war period, Innocenti recognized the potential of the scooter as an affordable means of mass transportation – they were cheap to build, to buy and to run.  Like its chief rival, the Vespa, Innocenti’s Lambretta scooter was powered by a series of two-stroke engines with capacities ranging from 49cc to 198cc, with either three or four gears.  Unlike the Vespa, which used a unibody chassis pressed from sheets of steel, the Lambretta’s mechanicals were housed in a rigid tubular frame and sold in either "open" (with minimal panels and thus looking like an unusual motorcycle) or "closed" (with fully covered mechanicals) versions.  Designed by engineer Pier Luigi Torre, the original Lambretta was launched in 1947 with a 125cc engine and progressively updated over the years.  Produced from March 1954 until April 1955, the Model F featured a new starter mechanism and transmission casing.