The Lambretta is an Italian scooter produced by the Innocenti mechanical industry of Milan, in the Lambrate district, from 1947 to 1972. The name comes from the small river “Lambro” near the factory.
During World War II Ferdinando Innocenti ran a steel tubing factory in Milan, producing components for the Italian Air Force. After the war, Innocenti needed to find a new product in order for his business to survive and he realized he could use most of the parts that his factory was already producing to motor scooter production. The result was a reliable and fun scooter, revolutionary in design, that improved the quality of life for many people in Italy and throughout the world. The scooter was produced in 6 different pastel colors and Innocenti became an industrial giant of post-war Italy.
The Lambretta had a 2-stroke engine running on an oil-petrol mixture, 3 or 4 gears, with a displacement ranging from 39 to 198 cm³.
It had a rigid tubular structure on which the bodywork was assembled.
The first models had the characteristic of the “open body”, the following models were also presented in a faired version; from 1957 onwards the Lambretta was always produced with a “closed” bodywork, with a front fender integral with the bodywork and with a central location for the engine.
At the end of the fifties the Lambretta was revised in terms of mechanics and bodywork and passing through three versions the final product was reached (Lambretta DL) until 1972, when the assembly line was sold to the Indian government.
Today the Lambretta is a collector’s item. The Lambretta Museum is in Rodano, in the province of Milan.
An innumerable quantity of Lambretta Clubs scattered all over the world preserves and feeds the myth of this historic scooter that represents an icon of Italy of the fifties and sixties.
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