Eric Cope smashes 127mph at Elvington on full-bodied Taylor-tuned Lambretta 250cc

On Sunday, July 5, 2020, the stars aligned and the gods of speed looked down upon Eric with favour. In near-perfect weather conditions Eric spent the day re-gearing his machine, and run after run the speeds climbed as Eric increased sprocket sizes to see how far he could go. The result? A final best run of 127.591mph (that’s 205.33kph!) on a full-bodied, road-legal machine, hitting these high speeds not just once… but run after run, showing consistent improvements with gearing changes throughout the day.

Elvington was the venue for this Straightliners event, hosted by Trevor Duckworth and team, using the same high-end timing equipment as used for record attempts. The event was run one way only, over a one-mile distance which included the option of doing just a half-mile or combining both distances on one ticket. Following on from recent engine upgrades over the winter, and a previous best of 112.3mph (before he ran out of gearing options) Eric started off gently (or so he thought) on his freshly rebuilt motor, and was shocked to see a first run of more than 119mph. The remainder of the day was spent playing with gearing and tyres to see the insane final top speed of 127.591 over the mile, and an earlier run of 122.875 over the half-mile!

Scooter tech spec is a tuned RB225 (71.5mm bore) cylinder, 62mm stroke crankshaft (249cc) to keep it within ‘up to 250cc’ class rules, along a with a standard four-speed f gearbox and running r in accordance with w the full bodywork regs. r The motor amazingly runs r a standard Lambretta L casing, and therefore t stud positions; thus t it runs no crankcase porting. An amazing result, a benchmark by which all others will be judged for some time to come.