Regular readers of ScooterNova magazine may have noticed in the latest edition an advert for a specialist scooter auction. Coincidentally in the same magazine we featured a rather rare scooter that will be for sale at the same event…
Over the years I’ve seen numerous car and motorcycle specialist auctions dabble in selling scooters to varying degrees of success. Some seem okay, others can make you cringe; the kind of thing where they describe cheap Asian resto with the wrong parts as a premium quality Italian scooter worth a small fortune. Scooter enthusiast Paul Diamond had also come across such things which encouraged him to set up VintageScooters.co.uk to offer a service that specialises in classic scooters. He has teamed up with H&H Classics and the first auction takes place on 6 April at the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham.
Now I should point out when I say auction, I mean a real life auction where you attend an auction house in person and view the lots being sold that are there in front of your eyes. Then, once it has started you must try and remember not to wave to your mate on the other side of the room in case the auctioneer mistakes that for a bid and slams his hammer down, you now being the proud owner of a rare Van Gough painting and it only cost you £12 million!
NOS Lambretta
Anyway, of the lots included there are no less than three scooters that have featured exclusively in ScooterNova magazine. As mentioned above, in the current edition 30 we published an article about a brand new Lambretta recently discovered in Italy with only factory/dealer miles on the clock. How rare is that? Produced in Spain in the mid-1980s it was exported for sale in Italy but was never actually sold. As such it was never registered, never ridden and has likely never been started since the factory tested it at the end of the production line! There can’t be many opportunities today to buy a real, classic Lambretta, with a 4-speed 125cc 2-stroke engine, but here it is.
Rare Riviera
Another rare machine up for auction is the Lambretta LD Riviera. These were produced by Innocenti in Milan for the UK market in limited numbers. Based on the Lambretta LD model which was soon to be replaced by the Series 1, it featured a number of accessories as standard to make it stand out in the showrooms and more popular for customers to buy.
There are tell-tale signs to differentiate a regular LD with a Riviera and we published an article about what were essentially a factory special model in edition 11 of ScooterNova magazine that featured this very scooter. There are very few Lambretta Rivieria scooters known to remain in existence.
British Special
Meanwhile for those who like to Buy British, how about this rather special Vespa Sportqiue, produced by Douglas Motorcycles in their Bristol factory during the early 1960s. Like the aforementioned Lambretta Rivieria, Douglas also produced a number of ‘factory special’ models to improve sales. They made three, all based on the 150cc Sportique Vespa (known as the VBB150 in Italy) and this is the Grand Tourer.
In fact this is the only Grand Tourer known to exist today, which makes it arguably a very rare scooter indeed. Douglas finished it in this rather fetching shade of red (a Jaguar car colour) and accessories including legshield trim, pillion footpegs, front bumper and screen all came as standard. This particular Vespa will form part of a future article in ScooterNova magazine, but like the two Lambrettas earlier, is one of 40 scooters coming up for auction on 6 April 2022 and so anyone who fancies a rare slice of British scooter history could become the new owner.
What else?
You can check out the online catalogue by clicking here with descriptions of the scooters available along with guide prices. Other consignments include a 1949 Vespa V11T, 1949 Lambretta Model B, 1953 Lambretta Model E, 1954 Vespa Faro Basso, 1966 Vespa SS90, 1969 Lambretta Cometa, two Lambretta dl200s and three SX200s. Note that on top of the final hammer price there is a 15% buyer’s fee to pay, and VAT to pay on that. So a £5000 scooter would incur a £750 fee, and if the buyer is not VAT registered a further £150 tax on top of that.
Auction viewing at the National Motorcycle Museum is on Wednesday 6th April 2022 from 9am. The Vintage Scooters consignments begin with lot 100 at 11am, with scooters offered up to lot 139. You can also bid online via the H&H website but will need to register first.
**Edition 30 (March/April) of ScooterNova magazine was published on 25 February 2022. ScooterNova is available from all good scooter shops or via mail order from our secure online shop here.
Packed full of classic scooters from cover to cover the articles include the rare 1968 Vespa Sprint Automatic Fuelmix, the birth of the Baby Lambretta, some stunning custom scooters and a look at the showrooms of 1951 and whether a 125cc scooter from MV Agusta was a better option than a Lambretta D125.
