At Mersea Island Scooter Rally this weekend just gone (2 September 2023) JG Scooters put an old 1970s Vespa 150 Super on their mobile dyno with the intention of making it go ‘bang’ to raise money for charity, Young Lives vs Cancer.
The scooter was an Italian model that had been originally sold in Asia where it had suffered many decades of hard work, with plenty of evidence of bodged roadside repairs but very little maintenance. To put it bluntly, the scooter itself was a wreck. The back had so many welds it had taken on new shapes never seen before on a Vespa, while raising the question as to how many pieces of other Vespas were actually bodged together to make this scooter?
The engine was on it’s last legs, which for a 150cc Vespa motor really says something, the horn shorted out when it was eventually started, the tyres are unlikely to grip to any European road surface, and the only parts with an obvious value was the trapezoidal headlight and possibly the single saddle.
Rescuing this Vespa from being scrapped the minute it landed in the UK as part of a job lot of secondhand scooters, Jonny at JG decided to get it going and use it to raise some cash for charity. So at the scooter rally he drained the gearbox of oil, put neat petrol in the tank and asked people to bet as to how long it would last at full throttle. In doing they raised over £500, so thanks to all those who chipped in.
How long did the poor Vespa last? Watch the video to find out.
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