Uncontrollable Soul

The owner of the gorgeous Lambretta that you see here, Jackie Watson, is a fortunate woman. I’m sure she’ll not be the first to be given a scooter by her loving other half, but I’ll bet tidy GT200s are a rare love gift.

Love conquers all, or so they say, but especially when it’s accompanied by the gift of a GT200.

Like many of us, Jackie’s husband Ralph is something of a magpie when it comes to scooter parts, having collected piles of bits that may come in useful at some point. Whereas many of us have piles of bent tinware, small frame panel doors or bits of wiring loom, a lucky few have acquired enough parts and ability to construct something as tasteful as this. The project started with the best part of a TV200 frame that was kicking around the garage. At some point, presumably in the middle of the Eighties, someone had decided that the back end was a bit too long and that it needed a bit of reshaping, and modified the chassis, scooterboy style. Ralph wasn’t keen on this, and particularly given the fairly limited number of genuine frames knocking about, he decided that the loop needed replacing.

Say it quickly and it sounds easy but as anyone who’s ever tried this will tell you, it actually takes a lot of work to get the scooter straight and looking as it would have done if it had come direct from the Innocenti assembly line.

Once that was replaced, it was time to get the rest of the bodywork into an acceptable condition. Jackie admits that she did wonder why she was being consulted over style and colour scheme at this point, initially not realising that it was being built as a present for her! Fortunately Ralph is an experienced painter who translated her ideas for the scooter into cellulose painted reality, and he also did the sign-writing, a skill that he was taught after leaving school.

Beautifully done, the vibrant green lettering is picked out tastefully on the edge of the running boards and mudflap, while the contrasting period perfect British Racing Green and white serves as a reminder of the model’s heritage. Underneath all that carefully painted bodywork should be a genuine GT200 engine, but sadly the original lump was long gone. Given that the money for a replacement would easily buy you an entire Vespa P200, they settled on an

motor that had a GP crank and kit fitted, giving a similar top end the original, but with better response, omething that suits the ‘Gran Turismo’ This, along with the genuine Ken silencer that sits proudly on the Ancillotti exhaust, were more that were just knocking around the It’s not the fastest of machines, with the styling being firmly anchored omewhere around 1974, it doesn’t need be. It just needs to look right, which the screen, spotlight, seat and sprint styled mudguard all conspire to achieve. The few bits of chrome that are scattered about were all plated at Quality Chrome in Hull, and were probably the largest expense on the scooter, given that Jackie reckons the whole thing weighed in at around £2000 and only five months work! I think her last words on the subject sum it up: Advice when building a scooter? Marry someone who can do it for you. I do hope my wife doesn’t read this... Words: Nik Photographs: Richie Lunt