Project Description

I’ve been tuning race Scooters since 1985. The first one I did was a Group 6 Reed valve, it was the fastest thing in a straight line but the rider couldn’t get round a corner. So he was passed on corners and he passed them again on the straights! I did a Ts1 150 – again the fastest thing but the rider couldn’t jet it in and every time he shut off on a corner he seized!

In the 90’s I did engines for the old Group 3, 4, 5 and 6 classes and created Tune MB – Team MB.

Group 3 I did a small frame Vespa for Eddie Goode and he won some races – he’s still racing today.

Group 4 Rob Miller showed the rest of the best how to ride and won a few races and everyones hero Dave Webster retired as the speeds were getting too fast because of Rob! Robs still as daft as ever at near 70 but doesn’t race after some serious road accidents.

Group 5 Hammy won the championship and he’s still racing today 20 years later.

Group 6 Graham Gee won some and Mike Davis won the UK championship and European Championships.

I did some scooter sprint racing and won – my second run was 13.57 seconds in a quarter mile standing start – hard to beat today!

I’ve only ever raced once on Grahams old bike who sold it to Shaun Hodgkin who’ again still gets out on the track. Me, Rob Miller and Pete Merchant drove to the Bruno race track in Czech republic for the European Championships. I came last on the first practice, 2nd last on the second practice, 8th in the 1st race – by now the jetting and handling was near sorted and 6th on the last race – how I wish the was 3 races! My biggest regret was nearly killing my good friend Rob Miller on a corner as the front brake kept trying to throw me off. In the end I stopped using the front brake to get around the track. Doug Turner was ex group 6 Champion at the time, he fell off his bike at 100mph on the finish line and broke both legs trying to pass me!

In the end too much politics and people not paying their bill turned me away from been involved in racing.

One group 6 bike ended up in France and raced for a bit and the customer ended up as one of my best friends in Gilles who rides a RT road bike in Paris. He’s had a couple of RT race bikes thats won 6 and 10 hour races.

Another ex Group 6 bike was sold to Stoffis in Austria, I redid the engine at 36bhp and that also won the European Championship.

Once I did a road engine for a customer, who sold it and that went in a sidecar and that then won another championship.

In 2009 I did help out with our Group 10 80cc Auto Scooter and that won the championship!

Since then other engines and tuning of mine have won – coast to coast races, off road racing endurance racing and flying speed records.

Marks first sprinter – 40bhp – totally unheard of. The most powerful Lambretta for 7 decades. Dynos were rare in those days, we were heading to Coventry to dyno it, we called in at VE to meet Norrie Kerr ex Vespa race champion many times. We did the dyno and called again on the way home. He came out and asked so what did it do? I asked ‘guess’ He started at ’20bhp no higher’ he kept going up and up at 35bhp he said I was making it up. When we settled at 40bhp I had to prove the dyno run – he couldn’t believe it!

The Red version was the second rebuild, I tried the front fairing but the bike snaked up Santa Pod, after 2 tries I took it off never to fit it again.

The layout and power of the Red bike couldn’t get grip even though it was fast, it would wheel spin in 3rd! I ended up de tuning it and altering it to the Blue frame and it went faster. I gave up in the end as I was just so busy at work. And it seemed every race I went to, I had to drive into a hurricane and I still got in to the 13 seconds.

 

Rob Miller first Lambretta, it was fast, faster than any other group 4 standard class 200. He won loads of races, but didn’t know when to slow down just before he fell off. He could have won the championship. This bike set power standards that was higher than the rest at the time – it was only 25bhp! Now the same engines see 40bhp but the rules have changed.

This was Graham Gees Group 6 bike, I’d known him through an employee through the 80’s. Graham would call in work now and then and one day he saw a new road cylinder I was doing for my self. He wanted it and bought it for his race bike. We did some developing and one day he beat Guy Topper the UK champion at the time. Wow our first real win! Graham sold it on to Shaun who raced a few times but didn’t carry on, he still has it now over 25 year later.

Graham used to do our alarms at work, so we were always meeting up. One day he came into work down in the dumps. I asked ‘whats wrong’ and he got asking about my depression and problems that I’d gone through. He was so stressed at work, I suggested he took up a hobby. So he went back to cycling, not just a bit of biking, he bought my mountain bike and beat himself to death into fitness and all his problems disappeared. One day he was run over by a lorry! The surgeons said his core strength and fitness saved his life! A happy memory for me. And he’s still racing push bikes to this day!

It was this Scooter I went to Bruno on. The front brake didn’t work, as soon as you touched it, it created a tank slapper, the more you pulled the worse it got. In the end I just stopped using the front brake – for those that know the back brakes are useless but thats how I got around the track by gearing down. And I had to down jet it from a 460 to a 250 to make it drive.

 

This was Hammys short stroke Ts1 150. Hammy was a mate of Rob Miller and he came out of retirement to ride this bike. It just got quicker and quicker. It was so quick, I played with it the night before a race. Hammy went off to Cadwell, he dumped the clutch and the bike flipped straight over breaking his collar bone for the 2nd time. He broke it a 3rd trying to keep up with me on a mountain bike down hill. He’s broken it again racing since. Hammys still racing to this day and winning and we’re still mates to this day!

In the 80’s Hammy was on Top Gear. Dave Webster was interviewed saying ‘if there’s anyone in front of me I’ve got to pass him’ The next shot shows him falling off trying to catch Hammy!

I absolutely love this bike, so much so I want to build another similar – one day! This ended up in Norway, never to be seen since.