CAR PARK CUSTOM
Local Hero Type: NSU Prima Owner: Ray Leach Engine: 180cc Typhoon Paint: Blax, Newport
Although scooters had travelled from across the UK and Europe to attend the rally, the winner of this month’s Car Park Custom had travelled barely 10 miles! Owner Ray and his wife Clare live in Cowes, the island’s main entry port. Keen scooterists, they camped at Smallbrook but admitted to popping home for a shower!
Although Clare’s Lui wasn’t ready in time for the rally they more than made up for its absence with their beautiful Prima. When I first saw the Prima I thought it had been beautifully restored, but as Ray explained this is anything but a standard machine. “I bought it as a bog standard Prima; it was in good overall condition and I thought it would be a fun tuning project. I knew NSU produced the Prima under licence and naively believed that most parts would be interchangeable with the contemporary Lambretta models. I quickly found out that wasn’t the case!” Having tracked down several German NSU specialists, Ray came to the conclusion that rebuilding the engine made no sense.
Parts were expensive and tuning options were limited due to NSU’s adaptation of the Innocenti design. “The only solution was a transplant,” he said “I sent the frame up to Frank Sanderson and a year later I had a running scooter!” The engine of choice was the popular Piaggio Typhoon, in this case kitted to 180cc. The gorgeous candy ’n’ cream paint looks deep enough to dive into and was applied on the island by Blax bodyshop in Newport.
“Frank and I had a long running discussion about the Prima,” said Ray. “I wanted to retain as much of the original Prima as possible while Frank wanted to replace the front end with telescopic forks and fit discs. As can be seen Ray won that argument and the Prima looks very much as intended by the NSU design team. However, when asked if he’d any advice for someone contemplating a similar build Ray sheepishly admitted: “Listen to Frank. It runs really well but getting it to stop is another matter entirely…”
Ray and his Prima are deserving recipients of a free subscription to Scootering. Not only is it a stunning example of restoration combined with engineering, Ray’s also brave enough to admit it hasn’t all gone to plan.
Ray’s working out a solution to the braking problems but for now if you see Ray out and about give him a wave, just don’t expect him to stop for a chat!