Hi Everyone,
I just have to share this with the group. My wife and I just returned
from Neiman Marcus' annual celebration where the flagship Dallas store
spotlights a country. This year's theme was "Italian by Design".
Absolutely fabulous, of course, including a 1951 Ferrari F1. Vespa was
a co-sponsor, and they sent over their 1953 (I think) record-setting
motorscooter from their museum.
Incredible and beautiful. It is a tiny streamliner, a teardrop shaped
bomb with a long fin-tail. Every exposed part has a streamlined fairing
over it. It is open top, and the driver, who must have been jockey-size,
kneeled in it. It has a 2-cyclinder opposed engine (no displacement was
listed) and used Vespa-size wheels and the traditional scooter designer
of the engine and rear swing-arm being a single piece. It set a record
of 109MPH for the kilometer.
Here the amazing part. One of the problems with motorcycle streamliners
is always, "how do you start and stop without falling over?" The Vespa
solution had two doors on the sides, like fins on a fish. They swung
out so the driver could put his legs out to support the bike when
starting and stopping. When closed, the doors lay flush with the body
skin. Inside was a large spring-loaded lever with a pad on the end, and
the lever was connected to each door via cables. The lever projected UP
from the bottom of the driver compartment and pressed against the riders
chest. When the rider got the bike moving and was stable, he just
leaned forward into his racing crouch, which pushed down on the lever
and closed the doors! When we has done, he sat upright, and doors
opened and he put his feet out. Fastastico! What a treasure.
I took lots of picture....
- Carl Dreher
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