Scooterist Meltdown 10th Anniversary | RALLERY

The surreal all-inclusive European scooterist weekender based in a nuclear power station finally completes its mutation…

Spirit of 84 Scooterists, headed by Marcus and Mareike Broix are not new to putting on parties. They lost that virginity, probably in a tent somewhere in Germany or Holland, many decades ago. Meltdown itself hit its 10^th anniversary this year. You’d think it would run like clockwork by now, but apparently not.

Wunderland – the hotel and amusement park complex built alongside the last German stretch of the Rhine before the river flows into the Netherlands – has recently changed hands. This meant restarting the relationship with the new management from scratch.

Not that you’d notice any change as you entered and were given a welcome shot of some fruity firewater or other. This year’s fancy dress theme was ‘glamour’ and couldn’t you tell?

I’ve only missed a couple of Meltdowns since the first, but this seemed by far the busiest, with accommodation completely sold-out well in advance. Indeed we ended up for the first time in a ‘hotel’ completely on the opposite side of the main entrance. Thankfully still not far to stomp in Friday’s drizzle.

While never officially referred to as a ‘rally’ there are always plenty of hardy folk who make the effort to get on a scooter and ride. This year, respect is due to Renegade SC as the most numerous club on scooters.

Jack Nyland’s Meltdown Video

All Eggs in the Friday Basket

 Friday’s shindig was spread over four music venues, plus a bowling alley and additional bars here and there. The main room – ‘World of Leather’ (so named for the German love of leather waistcoats and back-patches) rung to the sound of traditional scooterist soul and such. There’s also a little room for skankers and the Darkside-ish indie room.

I caught a few shouty bars of Saarf London punksters Wonk Unit while still far too sober to appreciate them. That needed fixing, but I’d need to be sensible in order to launch my new Vespa Wideframe Engine manual the following day.

Soon enough it was 2 am and I was still jumping around like a twat in the alternative room. Aging is inevitable but it seems that growing up, for many, remains indefinitely postponed.

Mutant Meet-up

 When I talked earlier of mutation, what I meant is away from the all-inclusive scooterist eating, drinking feast of night-time fun, and into probably Europe’s premier international scooterist trade gathering.

OK, so the Viking-style feasting and entertainment remains, but gradually the focus has shifted from nights of excess to the Saturday daytime. Everything is jammed in now from a custom show, a trade exhibition though to a dyno cock-length competition, bands, burnouts and beers. There are prizes for a million different categories including the hotly-contested ‘most punchable face’ prize (both ladies and gents up for grabs).

Some guests took the ‘Glamour’ theme to heart. Gotch and Lianne were magnificently appointed as Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette; pre-guillotine versions. Well, you can eat as much cake as you like at Meltdown, I suppose.

Others simply used the theme as an excuse to dress up in drag as the world’s most unkempt and overloaded Tranny since the Brinks Mat robbery getaway van. Please, someone, pass me that bottle of eye-bleach.

VIDEO: Blues SC @ Meltdown

Gallery: Nightime antics

Invasion from South of the Alps

I’ve often wondered how Scooterist Meltdown could attract more and younger clientele: certainly, we need more young blood to maintain our score of putting a dent in Wunderland’s profits; through excessive consumption. The answer, so it appeared, was for the Italians to turn up.

Meltdown played host this time to numerous new faces: Italians from Dexter Racing, Vespa Italia Racing, the lads from 2L Tech and with his first-ever stall at any event: Egig Performance. They joined Pinasco, Lambretta.IT and of course Casa Performance who brought their latest version of the CP Twin and bothered the bearings of the dyno with a run registering 86.5hp. Their target for next year is 100hp…

Dyno Depravity

While trapped inside signing books, I missed all the fun on the dyno, including the extreme supercharged Vespa of nutter-scooter maestro Posch Performance. This engine uses a flywheel-mounted pulley to drive a wet-system (i.e. carb-fed) supercharger. Essentially, it sucks fluid faster than toothless Tina down the docks.

Sadly, driving a supercharger is quite a lot of drag for a flywheel mounted on a PX crankshaft taper; resulting in a sheared woodruff key and an unhappy motor that spewed sparks in protest.

Video: Posch Performance @ Meltdown 2024

Hands-On

Those still sober enough to swing a leg, and who pre-booked a slot, could have a go on one or both of Scooter The Fero’s demonstrators for their Chimera twin-cylinder Lambrettas: a 250cc tourer and a 500cc 52hp beast. You could also gawp at Gran Turismo’s latest entry into the now hotly-contested Lambretta Twin campus.

Meanwhile, other Italians started to tune up in the main hall. Olly Riva and the Soul Rockets took to the stage and kept everyone going until the trophy presentation.

There are so many prizes that I’m not sure Marcus has finished giving them out yet. He may still be on stage now, hunting through his pocket for scraps of beer-soaked paper to find out who came second in the ‘wobbliest gut’ category. We’ll never know.

Custom & Classic

 Confession time: I didn’t get a moment to even look at the scooters on display, but there were certainly some of note. These included a 1946 Vespa 98 on the display of the Hoffmann Rennstaffel. This is a fully-formed and recognisable Vespa from when Innocenti were still only making scaffold clamps.

For a better review of the bikes on display I suggest a good look through Lit and Yoleila’s image galleries.

VIDEO: By The Jetsons

Further winners

FURTHEST TRAVELLED GEARED: Shamus Gaughan

FURTHEST TRAVELLED AUTO: Eric from Derbyshire 

BEST TURNED-OUT RIDDEN CLUB: Renegades SC

BEST DRESS: Gotch & Lianne as Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette 

BEST DRESSED CROWD: Northampton Vespa & Lambretta Club

Major Power Awards 

(Please note: Two new categories were introduced for 2024 – the Special Engine for Vespas and Lambretta with non-standard engine cases. As a result, the average power figures are lower as most of the powerful Lambrettas and Vespa Large and Small frames are not visible anymore, as they came under these new categories.)

VESPA LARGE FRAME: Moto Vespa 150 by Posch Performance – 45 bhp

VESPA SMALL FRAME: Vespa 50 by Alfonso – 21,1 bhp

LAMBRETTA: Lambretta LiS 125 by Motorino Diavolo – 30 bhp

VINTAGE CLASS: Vespa GS/3 150 by Nagy Blechroller – 31,2 bhp

VESPA SPECIAL ENGINE: Vespa PX by Posch Performance – 68,5 bhp

LAMBRETTA SPECIAL ENGINE: Lambretta Twin by Casa Performance – 86,5 bhp

Gallery: Showtime!

Custom show winners 

BEST ORIGINAL PAINT CUSTOM

1. V98 by Tore from Hoffmann Rennstaffel 
2. Vespa Primavera ET3 by Rusty Hangar

BEST ORIGINAL PAINT RESTO

1. 1946 V98 by Frank Thöle from Hoffman Rennstaffel
2.  Lambretta Lui by Sarah Wiltshire

BEST ENGINEERING

1. PK Automatik with Hexagon engine
2. Vespa PX “Grande Elegante”

BEST VINTAGE SCOOTER

1. Lambretta Chopper “The Sinner”
2. Spanish Winter Model by Jack Nyland

BEST RIDDEN SCOOTER

1. Lambretta Spanish Winter Model “INXS”
2. Lambretta Ser 1 “Rusty Innovations”

BEST ODDITY

1. Lambretta 70ies Skelly by Hansi
2.  Supercharged PX by Posch Performance

BEST DEALER SCOOTER

1. Lambretta S2 Twin by Scooter The Fero
2. Vespa Small Frame by Dexter Racing

BEST CUSTOM SCOOTER

1. Lambretta LI 150 Eibar “Boddingtons” with SKR engine
2. Lambretta S2 “National”

BEST VESPA

1. T4 Orange „932“ by Marek Nachli
2. PX Demonstrator by Fu Mannifu

BEST LAMBRETTA

1. Lambretta GP “Klub Foot” by Jens Kruse
2. Lambretta Street Racer by Martin Zeller

BEST OF SHOW 

1. Vespa T5 “Spouzza” by Kevin from Savage Scooters
2.  Vespa PX “He-Man” by Z-Design owned by Christian Vitz