 We stumbled across the sport of motor sprinting quite a few years ago, but never really thought much of it, until one day at a local meeting in Waterbeach just outside Cambridge we entered two of our scooters for a bit of fun and something to do on a Sunday! Needless to say once we had a go, we found it fun, so decided to have a go "properly" for the next season, as the one we had entered was the last meet of the year.
Fast forward to 2005, and plans for a fully blown sprint bike we as ever well behind schedule as the workshop is always busy. Not to be deterred, we set about using some of our demonstrator scooters to enjoy the fun any how. These scooters are normal road going scooters, used for rallies, riding to the shops, customers trying out the kits we sell, and all round general use, our Imola even goes down the 1/4 mile with a rear backrest, spare wheel and inside leg shield tool box full of tools! Our intentions with these scooters are not to try set or beat records, but to show that normal road going Lambrettas with the small block Imola engines can be fast, fun and reliable!
In 2005 we only managed to enter two events, we got off to a good start entering the first two events, and then Euro Lambretta and work over load took over. Needless to say we had a little fun, with the best times being achieved as follows. Peter Bowden, Imola sprint, 16.68 seconds with a terminal speed of 73.16mph gaining a first place and trophy at Wattisham, and Trevor Peat at the same meeting recorded 17.09 seconds, and 72.77mph.
Peter and Jason also attended a "run wot you bring" event at Santa pod, we had a good time and a bit of fun!
Jason is nearest the Camera, Peter is furthest away. For the 2006 season we hope to be better prepared, two scooters have been entered, the full bodied Imola sprint, and our new toy the Monza 240 sprinter, further details are below.
Imola Sprinter
Spec
| kit |
Imola |
| Stroke |
58mm |
| Bore |
64mm |
| CC |
186 |
| Carburettor |
Dell'orto PHBH30mm PowerJet |
| Ignition |
Varitronic |
| Exhaust |
JL Race |
| Tuning |
Finger boost port, transfers matched |
| Power Output |
19bhp @ 8,000rpm |
| Fuel |
Shell Optimax |
| Fastest times |
1/4 mile 16.19 seconds |
| Fastest terminal speed |
74.90mph |
| Body |
Standard, no rear running boards or tool box, other wise totally factory standard. |
The Imola sprinter is a standard 186 Imola cylinder kit, with an additonal finger port added to the cylinder and casing, no other porting work has been carried out. The Varitronic is a standard off the shelf kit running 25 degress advance and 17 degrees at full retard. This scooter is a full bodied standard Lambretta Serveta, which is road legal, with MOT, tax, full lights etc. The only thing from standard apart from the engine, is we took the tool box out, and added front dampers. This scooter is a fully road legal scooter and was sprinted this season to show that springting on a standard machine can be cheap and fun. Every component on this scooter can be brought off the shelf. |
Monza Sprinter
Spec
| kit |
Monza |
| Stroke |
62mm |
| Bore |
70mm |
| CC |
240 |
| Carburettor |
Dell'orto PHBH30mm PowerJet |
| Ignition |
Varitronic |
| Exhaust |
Hand built |
| Tuning |
Finger boost port, transfers enlarged and matched |
| Power Output |
37bhp @ 8,600rpm |
| Fuel |
98 octane |
| Fastest times |
1/4 mile 13.27 seconds |
| Fastest terminal speed |
97.50mph |
| Body |
Totally cut down, frame stretched 3" and engine moved back. |
The Monza 240 features a ported Monza kit, 62mm stroke crank, hand built expansion, 30mm PHBH power jet carb, Varitronic ignition. The frame has been stretched by two inches, light weight fuel tank, and a few other toys added. On a local dyno, we have achieved 29bhp, at a run of 110mph, which of course will be less on the track, but we have gear and expect it to be near the 100pmh mark. Futher tuning and a new expansion built in September saw results on a differing dyno as follows. As original spec 26.5bhp (shows how different dynos can give very different readings), after more porting work and new expansion power at the rear wheel now reads 37bph. Coupled with a change of gearbox, the sprinter is now pretty reliable, with a gearbox and clutch basket being the only failures. Work for the new season will concentrate on weight loss. |
2006 Season Results and stories
April 9th - Woodbridge,
The first meeting of the season took place at Woodbridge in Suffolk, Trevor rode the tried and trusted full bodied Imola 185, this scooter is fully road legal and competes in the up to 250cc class, along side Yamaha, Suzuki 250cc bikes etc. Trevor's best time on the day was 16.19 seconds, with a terminal top speed of 74.90 miles per hour. Overall the scooters specification has stayed pretty much as is from last year, we are gradually loosing some weight where can bit by bit, and maybe will be adding some more tuning modifications as we go. Overall our plan is to run this scooter as a "full bodied" lambretta with legshields, panels and all to leave it as a Lambretta!
To be honest for the first outing of our new full sprint bike, I personally (as I was the test pilot) was hesitant and for the first event we pretty much expected to be testing how well the scooter pulled away, and then handled at higher speeds. We had run the sprinter on the dyno twice, for a total of about 4 hours, 95% of this was done for exhaust testing and evaluation, so the scooter itself was due for its first shake down at woodbridge. The first run was more like a shopping trip, nice and easy off the line, limiting revs to 6, maybe 7,000 just to make sure it all worked, but most of all went in a straight line and no wobbles at high speeds. Well the first run we were surprised, even though I was running half the three quarters throttle in the first two gears, we managed 14.16 seconds with a terminal speed of 86.6 miles per hour. The second run was pretty similar, still making sure all things were sounding right, and working well. The second run achieved pretty much the same time, 14.31 seconds, but with a slightly better terminal speedo of 92.4mph.
So things were working well, time to gradually open the scooter up a bit more, the few runs I had made on it left the front wheel either in the air or very light due to the pretty low revs on take off and no clutch control. We made six runs in all, the best time we achieved was 13.48 seconds with a terminal speed of 96.50 mph. Were we pretty pleased with this, as all development work has been done on the frame and some porting, we still have some more port modifications to do, and the most important bit lose some weight within the machine itself (and probably the rider). At this point the internals of the engine, frame and wheels are all standard Lambretta running gear, we plan to loose some weight and hopefully gain some quicker times with more events. The last two runs of the day we put the Monza up against one of the organisers on a Honda Fireblade, the blade only just pipped us over the line!
Trevor gets off the line a bit sharp with the wheel in the air |
Peters gentle get away testing every thing works. |
April 23rd - Wattisham,
Rain stopped play, well it did'nt stop it but certainly restricted times, plus upon arriving the new timing equipment used by the organisers had not come with enough cable, meaning the event was reduced to 1/8th mile
Both the Imola and the Monza scooters suffered wheel spin off the line, (as did all competitors) so times were down from what we would have hoped or expect to achieve, Trevor made a number of runs on the Imola 185, mainly achieving times of around 10.00 to 10.10 seconds, with a best time of 9.82, no terminal speeds were recorded. Peters best times on the Monza in the late 8 seconds, 8.99, 8.97 and the best run saw 8.93.
The video below shows one of the Monza's starts, if you look and listen closely you can hear the wheel spin, and see the solid rear suspension kick the scooter around when hitting the power band.
May 14th - Woodbridge
 
A couple of quick starts from Trevor, with and without the wheel in the air on different occasions! |
For the second visit to Woodbridge this year the weather was pretty much as it was the first time, although it got warmer as the day went on. The event was split over two days, although you could enter either the Saturday, the Sunday or both, due to the shop opening times we just did our usual Sunday event. As the organisers we also running flying quarters at this event, the turn out was quite high, it seemed every Suzuki Hayabusa owner and almost all other big bikes had come along to try to obtain a true high speed reading for their bikes. Well one did manage 200mph, not only once, but on three different runs. Still with a little bit more tuning we hope to top that soon Yeah Right!
Trevors class the up to 250cc Road legal seems to get more and differing entrants with each event, so he never knows what times or bikes he is setting out to beat. Most of the bikes in this class are 1980/1990's Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda being 250cc, and despite this Trevor manages to get the smaller, heavier, and older 185 up there and among their times.
Peters first three or four runs were quite poor, and so are not worth mentioning.......! Still after the break for lunch, normal service was resumed and we managed to do two runs that were respectable, 13.96 and 13.76 both terminating at 92mph.
 
During the afternoon and the various conversations with the other competitors it seemed all riders were reporting slower times then the last time we visited Woodbridge. During the break between Wattisham and Woodbridge some small changes had been made to the sprinter to loose weight, but as the other competitors had reported times were slower. This explained our slight disappointment at not going better despite the weight loss we had made.
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Peter then came up with a much more substantial weight loss, ditch the leathers. Unfortunately the organisers would not let him test his theroy due to the glare from his chest, although the 1970's underwear did make it through scrutineering! Whilst we feel we should apologise to all the young children and ladies out there who may see this photo, as the notice at the top of this page states Motor Sport can be dangerous, looking at that body we can see what they mean. Still Peter is available for hire as a scare crow on weekends we are not sprinting. |
June 18th, Honington,
Trevor was unable to make the Honington event due to other comitments, so Peter along with the crew attended. New clutch plates were fitted for this event, and so the first two runs were pretty poor and I struggled to find a happy medium with where the clutch would bite and go. A couple more runs were made but then disaster struck. the extended clutch basket were had brought in from another dealer gave way in a big way and all drive was lost. The fastest time we managed at this event was a pretty poor 14.20 seconds with a terminal of 89.95mph. We were packed up and on our way home by lunch time, better luck next time!
September 10th Wattisham,
For some reason we missed this meeting due to us not even remebering it was on!
September 24th Honington,
Last run of the season, the new work carried out on the scooter took a few runs to get used to. With the season pretty much over and the runs made, Peter achieved 13.90, and Trevor then had a go on the 240 and achieved 13.22.
If you are interested in having a go at sprinting, why not join in, its fun, cheap and easy to do. Torque-Motorsports Limited run a series of events in and around East Anglia, for more details visit their web site.
http://www.torque-motorsports.com
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