Earlier this week the CAD drawings for a new Lambretta Series 1 style Royal Alloy were posted on the Royal Alloy Club of Great Britain Facebook page (pictured above). Well, we’ve managed to obtain the first spy shot of how it’s expected to look.
That’s right, just when you thought it was safe to ride your classic Series 1 Lambretta without imitations along comes a Chinese imposter.
Here’s what we know so far
We’ve managed to obtain the image above. It’s a factory rendering, rather than an actual photo, but it gives you a fair idea of what will be produced.
According to the CEO of Royal Alloy Worldwide on the RAGB Facebook post with the CAD drawings (top of page), this scooter will be in production this year. They’re expecting them for summer, (July/August) and RA will be making it in 125LC and 350LC. There will also be a sidecar option.
The model is codenamed JP or SWAN but that’s not set in stone yet.
TG to JP
Looking at what we’ve seen so far, this model will basically be a Tigara Grande with a different horncast complete with a built-in headlight (like the Lambretta Series 1). It’ll also have enclosed handlebars, just like the real thing. That’s pretty much what Innocenti did when they changed the Series 1 into the Series 2 back in 1961. Royal Alloy has gone the opposite way though by creating an S1 out of an S2.
Proportions
I’m sure lots of Lambretta fans, owners and riders will see things that aren’t quite right on the rendering. I own this green 1958 Lambretta Series 1 myself. The RA version does look good (as does the TG) but they’ve not quite got the proportions right at the front end. Whether that’s intentional, or if they’ll be tweaking the design before tooling is made we’ll have to wait and see.
Scomadi S1
I was lucky enough to visit the Scomadi factory in February 2020, just as the world started to close down due to the pandemic. On one of the walls in the R&D department were some CAD drawings for a Series 1 style Scomadi. As yet, Scomadi has stuck to the Series 3/GP shape so it’s never been made. I was also at Scomadi’s original factory in Preston Lancashire in 2016 and saw Frank Sanderson’s drawings of a Series 1 style Scomadi there as well, so Royal Alloy certainly wasn’t the first to think of it.
To be honest, it’s a natural thing for a retro scooter manufacturer to want to produce other popular styles of the marque they’re imitating so it was always going to happen, no matter which company brought it to fruition. The good thing is that if you like this style of scooter, at least with Royal Alloy you know you’ll be able to buy one in the UK. Their new distributor is gearing up for spring and we’ll hopefully see an improvement in customer service and spares availability.
We’ll keep you posted…
Iggy
Are you able to get the royal alloy 350 scooter with sidecar in the purple metallic paintwork