 |
 The Automatic 'B'
The automatic 'B' was produced by Innocenti, in a joint venture
with Kreis, a German gearbox specialist. It dates from November
1949, as has the same set up found in any modern car i.e, neutral
- drive - 1st and 2nd . Selection of the gears is done via a hand
operated lever, and includes a foot 'kickdown' for selecting a
lower gear. This is believed the only surviving example of three
prototypes produced, with cost thought to have kept it from going
into production.
 
 
The Lambretta twin
The Innocenti twin was produced as a means to give more power
to keep up with the ever increasing speeds to new motorcycles
coming to the market place. The engine is basically two 100cc
barrel, piston and crank assemblies, in line side by side with
each other. This of course gave a cc of 200, having ridden the machine I can confirm all reports that it is the smoothest Lambretta ever
produced/ridden. Lots of extra torque (pulling power) is made by the extra
cylinder, although we are unsure of the top speed!
From the front the twin looks like a standard SX, its not until you start to look at the scooter, that you notice something is not quite right.!
To start with the floor boards are cut down, the rear frame legs and in a different position, and smooth.
Although the scooter on the whole is excellent in terms of positioning of the extra parts, need, moving certain things around, you can just about see the smaller toolbox that would have been used in production due to the twin air system needed for both 20mm carbs.
This side views gives a better indication of the air system, the shape of the toolbox, the longer carb hose needed, and other such mods
The twin cylinders have of course two separate downpipes going into one exhaust box, this appeared to be one complete unit, the silence body resembles a J range exhaust, showing that Innocenti drew on the "family" of Lambrettas when designing this model
Apart from the drive unit for the Smiths rev counter, which functions perfectly, outwardly this side view of the main casing differs little from a standard production single cylinder unit.
The seat on the twin, although pretty standard looking in terms of shape, actually features the waffle style pattern that made it into production on the last models made by Innocenti, the GP Electronics.
One feature of the twin which never saw production was the re designed disc brake. This feature a fixed disc, and moving pads, unlike the floating disc that all productions models got. From this side, it looks like a standard Lambretta disc!
That is until you look around the other side and see the different operating mechanism.
There are two reasons given for not making this from the Italian experts depending on who you listen to.
1) Too expensive to produce. (Vittorio sates this).
2) Not enough orders, Lambretta UK said OK we will have 1000 straight away, but no other importers would commit to buy. Innocenti wanted more guaranteed orders before they would halt production of something else more profitable. (Tino told me this)
I have put up a couple of movies of the Lambretta twin, a factory prototype that never made it into production.
Any how, one thing is for sure, this scooter is quite something else, make sure you have your speakers on to enjoy that lovely sound it makes. Sorry for the childish giggles and chatter in the back ground, but its not every day you get to see such a rare beast,
To save or download the movie(s), right click on your mouse button, from the menu choose save target as, and then save onto your hard drive. When the download is complete, click open.
|
| Movie number one, is just Vittorio pushing the scooter out onto the road, quite boring!.
|
The main movie is the scooter on the move with Vittorio riding it. |
.MOV file for Quicktime veining. 1.23mb |
.MOV file for Quicktime veining. 10.80mb |
| |
.SWF file for Flash viewing. 4.01mb |
Both Movies, Joined!
.Mpeg file for Windows Media viewing. 3.34mb |
The DLD
The D/LD was not a true Innocenti prototype, rather an
exercise into what a prototype may have looked like. Mike Karslake
was commissioned to produce this machine as a prototype of the
time the D and LD started production. It utilises parts from
both the Model D and the LD hence it's name!
Motorcycles
A handful of Lambretta or Innocenti motorcycles were produced
over the years, and it is not know whether they were serious attempts
at production, or just to warn off the motorcycle producers from
dipping into the scooter market. Innocenti were a very large manufacturer
at the time, with many motorcycle companies, following closely
Innocenti's total success in the scooter market. Most companies
at one time or another looked into or even built scooters, but
they were always based on motorcycles and so were never very popular.
In 1951 Innocenti built a 250cc, twin shaft drive, air cooled, with
lightweight wheels, many features not seen in the motorcycle world
in 1951! As mentioned, it was probably to serve a warning to the
motorcycle world, that if they had to, Innocenti could and would
produce a machine to match, and probably beat, all others. This
hopefully stopped the motorcycle world encroaching on what Innocenti
saw as their market.
|
 |
