Feature Scooter: From ‘Hot Pearl Snatch’ to a ‘Fen Girl’… Terry Vine bought the type of scooter he always wanted, ran it till it dropped, and has now rebuilt it with his own personal touch.
Terry Vine’s first interest in scooters began in the early 90s after being taken on rallies by his dad’s mate, John Joel of the London Vikings SC, on his PX200E. John was a larger than life character and the camaraderie and banter of these early rallies led Terry not to take himself too seriously.
When Terry reached 16 years of age he’d collected almost every scooterist publication since he was 10 years old, and was itching to have his own scooter. “My mum and dad bought me a Vespa PK 50 XL but they told me they’d got me an automatic moped for my birthday. However, at my party I heard the unmistakable sound of the Vespa being ridden into our garden, and surrounded by my mates from school; me, the tough-looking skinhead, cried like a baby, much to the enjoyment of everyone there!”
Fast forward 20 years and after attending many rallies in cars and by other means Terry finally came across Hot Pearl Snatch in Mel Day’s (aka The Doctor) garage collecting dust, and after negotiating a deal to pay on ‘finance’ the chop was his. “I’d never been so ready to ride the scooter to every rally I could get to. My first rally was the Sid James SC’s 10th anniversary rally. I set off at 5am on my own to complete the 171-mile ride
“It was time for me to make the scooter my own. Drops had always been on my mind, and so for me there was no better place to start.”
armed only with the directions given to me by my best mate, Richard ‘Rat’ Thorpe. As I entered the gate I was eager to find out if anyone had beaten me for the furthest travelled. I was horrified when I was told that a GTS had beaten me; I wasn’t happy, but a year later I met the couple who won the award and we’re now very good friends.”
LCOC
Terry’s journey as a full-blown scooterist had begun and he wasted no time in joining the Lambretta Chopper Owners’ Club. “For obvious reasons the LCOC was the first club I joined. They’re a fantastic club with a wealth of knowledge and great characters in the mix; they are always available for advice and have helped me out massively over the past few years. A few people believe that chops are not fit for long journeys and should only be brought out for short periods; like custom shows etc. I cover around 4000 miles every season on my chop and I’ve won most outstanding LCOC member two years running. I absolutely love riding long distances; the further the better, especially to rallies and to parts of the world I’ve never seen before. You should see the look on people’s faces when they find out that I’ve ridden several hundred miles to get to the venue on my chop.”
Chops ‘n’ drops
After riding his scooter into the ground Terry began to think of ways that he could make it his own and put his own stamp on it. “First I had an idea of putting a Series 1 headset on it; as it was originally just that, a 1959 LI series 1. On scouring the selling pages I found a set of Series 1
drops for sale. I had a look at a few photos of them on a full frame and then I came up with the ludicrous idea that they would look really cool on my chop! I didn’t have the time to complete all the work required myself, so I handed them over to Cambridge Lambretta who did an amazing job. However, when I tried to put them on to my scooter they didn’t fit because it had a Series 3 stem! I probably could have ground the stem down but looking at it together I thought better of it; basically they looked awful so it was back to the drawing board! But drops were never far from my mind as I knew they would make an interesting change to the whole appearance of the scooter.”
Investigation
Over the winter, and as part of Terry’s plan to develop his own personal touches to the scooter, he completed some extensive research. “As luck would have it, I discovered the complete history of the scooter. I couldn’t believe my luck! I looked at all the photos I could to try and find out what had been done to it over the years. I saw that every owner had changed little bits to it, but the basic purple colour had stayed the same throughout, along with the rake, forks and frame. However, with all this said, and as those who know me will vouch, I can’t say that it’s all been plain sailing over the last four seasons. I have hammered it to breaking point. When I first bought the scooter it had a 175 kit on it, but I wanted something faster so I bought a 200SR small-block kit. Having a nonexistent knowledge of anything mechanical I relied on
my mates to strip the engine down. During the process we discovered a bad weld and once the casings were split it immediately crumbled and fell apart, causing my mate to use the technical term, ‘It’s f***ed’. Not going to be beaten by this crisis, we found a set of 150 Spanish casings to replace the overworked ones and the rebuild was back on.”
Proving ground
The scooter now runs on a 186 Imola kit and after running it in, it was time for Terry to put things to the test and make the 520mile journey to Aviemore! “I managed it without any problems; I went with three good friends, it was a complete adventure and we had a fantastic weekend.”
With the engine work complete, the scooter was still mainly in its Hot Pearl Snatch appearance form. “It was time for me to make the scooter my own. Drops had always been on my mind, and so for me there was no better place to start. I was kindly donated a set of Series 3 drops by Gav Hockley and I bought some BGM slim dampers, which made riding the scooter even better. For my 40th birthday my girlfriend paid for the spray job, which was completed by one of our club members, Wayne Hollis, and with the addition of the new headset it changed the look of the scooter completely. There are a few other little quirky elements which I’ve also added; one of them being the six-fingered sidestand, which was made by my mate, ‘Rat’, and another being the uniquely upholstered seat, which I made myself from a pair of jeans, beer towels and rally patches! And with all the elements of the build complete it was time to put the scooter back together, which I did with a little help from my friends in my living room!”
Right decisions
In 2019 at the Burton Brewers do, Terry entered Fen Girl into its first custom show. On that occasion it didn’t win anything, but that all changed when Terry next entered it into the Skegness scooter rally custom show and it won Best Oddity/Chopper. Terry reflected: “We do it because it never gets boring, it’s the life we love and when we do it… we do it well.”
Words: Stu Smith and Terry Vine Photos: Tom Vine