The great challenge

Lambretta and Vespa, the scooters designed for smooth city riding, chose to challenge on the speediest European track and large motorways. Their aim, to conquer world speed records, up to then reserved to traditional high-wheel motorcycles.

When Piaggio and Innocenti scooters appeared on the scene just after the war, their success was not taken for granted as we may think today. Scepticism of motorcyclists for a vehicle with small diameter wheels and an open chassis (for ladies, some thought) was so rooted that even a very low price could not always dissipate it. Small wheels meant for motorcyclists lower stability at higher speeds, because of the strong gyroscopic effect, and lower comfort, because such small wheels entered every little pothole, and potholes were numberless back in those days. Although these claims were partly true, both Piaggio and Innocenti decided to prove them wrong by following two courses of action, which involved taking part in speed races and regularity contests. Great speed racers were engaged – like Masetti, Masserini and Ubbiali – and also experienced riders to run in regularity contests, partially on loose surfaces. Great successes were recorded, from the local and national competitions in 1947-48, up to the individual success in the San Remo Six Days and to the Vespa’s team performance in the 1951 Varese International Six Days. Average speeds in these contests were however rather low and, more important, as the competitions were reserved to scooters, they did not assure the direct challenge with traditional motorcycles that would have been more convincing to the public. The problem of comparing scooters at high speeds was therefore still unsolved. At the end of 1948, following a variety of world records obtained in Monza by the small Moto Guzzi 75, Innocenti thought that breaking world records would be very important for the the 125 class, up to then the exclusive field of motorcycles. The technical staff managed by Pierluigi Torre started to project the machine that was to solve this problem. Obviously, as a specialist like Piero Taruffi had already pointed out, it would have been absurd to immediately face the most challenging records, as the flying kilometre and the one-hour. It would be much better to carefully consider the records and try and break the easier ones first.

A "Lambretta-like" start. At the end of 1948 the valid records for the 125 class on average and long distances were the ones obtained by Rapeau and Renaud with Prester (an Aubier Dunne engine) and by Welche and Kohler with the French Train in the far 1933, with average speeds just over 80 km/h. These were the records that Lambretta was to challenge first. It was in any case just the beginning, so it was not worth while to face an "away game" on the French racing track that, beside involving higher costs, also had the drawback of an inexorable direct challenge. And it was not advisable to run at Monza, where a comparison with the recent performance of Moto Guzzi 75 was inevitable. Better find a new contest ground. The answer came from Rome, where the Innocenti family lived. The Rome Moto Club and particularly Leone Massetti, a member of the Federazione Motociclistica Italiana, did their best to close to regular traffic the Roma-Ostia motorway, a little more than twenty km long. Obviously, a duration record on a straight road involved slowing down and turning back at each end, in addition to the slowing down necessary for fuelling up. A "Series A" Lambretta was selected, to which legshields were cut off and a showy fuel tank fitted (also useful for riders to lean on while running). The front chassis was in any case left open, to comply with regulations. The rear part was instead a tube framing and a large air intake for cooling cylinder and head. Few modifications were made to the motor-gear-transmission group with the type-A structure without rear suspension: a higher compression ratio, a few touches to the lights and pipes and, even if newspapers did not report it, a carburettor with a larger choke tube. The riders were Mario Angonoa, a veteran of national regularity running, Oreste Brunori, a rider of Parilla, a young Umberto Masetti, who had already run with Lambretta in circular courses and wanted so much to run that he passed indifferently from the 125 Morini to the Gilera Saturno, and, finally, a test driver of Innocenti, Riccardo Rizzi, who had shown his skill also in the San Remo Six Days. The attempt on the Roma-Ostia motorway started at 9.32 of the 11th February 1949 and was concluded after nine hours, at 18.32. The city authorities, despite the influence of the Innocenti family, could not keep that important road closed to regular traffic for the foreseen 24 hours. All the category records between the 3 and 9 hours were beaten, and also those on the 500 kilometres and the 500 miles. The nearly constant average speed was 95 km/h (95.556 on 500 miles). Besides the selected records, the new average speeds set records from 7 to 9 hours and the 500 miles record of class 175, which up to then belonged to the pair Rapeau-Renaud with a 175, also equipped with an Aubier Dunne engine. During that year and the following it was still possible to assign speed records of a specific category to lower powered motorbikes. A total of thirteen records were set and immediately advertised. This performance inevitably aroused the desire of running also on the Montlhéry track, where it was not necessary to slow down and turn back, as it had been the case on the Roma-Ostia. For this attempt, the same Lambretta unit was employed, but for the occasion it was equipped with a flashy aerodynamic front hood, behind which a higher capacity fuel tank was fitted. About this showy hood, the friend Arturo Coerezza wrote in "Motociclismo" magazine: "We hope this hood is not only fitted to record vehicles but also used to standard vehicles. In fact, besides allowing a considerable increase in speed, it protects the driver much better than those senseless windshields one can see around in wintertime. Most of all, it protects hands from freezing, a matter of the utmost importance for whoever has experienced hand freezing". For what concerns the riders, Angonoa was replaced by Massimo Masserini. Masserini was the skilled driver from Bergamo who in September 1948 won the Gran Premio of the Nations in Faenza with the new air-cooled four cylinder Gilera. Masserini himself started at 8.45 a.m. on the 23rd March 1949, followed by Brunori, Masetti and Rizzi. A swap of riders every 80 tours was decided, then reduced to every 40 tours in the early morning, so that each one would run the same amount of tours. Beside the 20-hour record, all the intermediate speed records were beaten, including those set in Rome. Many of these records (12 to be precise) were also valid for class 175 and three of them (the 1000 miles, the 2000 km and the 24 hours) were valid for class 250. In total, the world records amounted to 33, with average speeds included between 108.250 km/h for the two-hour record and 94.517 km/h on the 24 hour with a total mileage of 2,268 kilometres. And all this despite the very cold weather, due to a recent snowfall, and the suffering caused by the long time spent in the night replacing burnt out bulbs. The engine power for this attempt was 8 hp at 6000 rpm. As the saying goes, "hunger comes with eating", and not even a month had lapsed when, on the 17th April 1949, the Lambretta team went back to Montlhéry with the 48-hour record as a goal. Same riders, same success and, even if departure was more cautious considering the greater distance, at the 11th hour average speeds were already markedly higher (102.067 km/h instead of 94.517 km/h, which was the 24-hour average speed). In 48 hours, 4,687 km were run (average: 97.639 km/h).

After the 48 hour record, the attempt went on for three more hours, so that also the 5,000 km record was broken. On this mileage average speed increased to 97.781 km/h. Curiously enough, the specialized magazines mentioned only the four riders, but the official list of records of the Federazione Motociclistica Internazionale reported also the name of Luigi Cassola, for records on mileages over 2,000 km and for the 48-hour record. He was a test driver of Innocenti too, later to become the chief of the test room at Lambrate. Cassola, who was then the head mechanic of the team and who had taken part in previous contests with Lambretta, was registered as a replacement, but did not actually drive. The Lambretta employed for the 48 hour record was the same used in the previous attempt, with a higher hood that did a better job in protecting the rider. In the engine, maximum rpm had been cautiously kept at 5,300. The fuel was again 100-octane rating petrol with 10% lubricant oil and consumption resulted in just over 4 litres/100 km.