I’d say that of all the scooters I’ve owned this GP is high among my all-time favourites, in fact it vies for top slot with my current PX depending on what mood I’m in. As it’s been a while since it featured in Scootering, it’s probably best to give a recap of the story so far.
My GP is actually a DL and left the Innocenti factory sometime in early 1969 destined for South Africa. There it was sold to the South African government and at some point allocated the registration ‘R205’, which it still carries on its mudguard. The ‘R’ prefix indicates a military registration, but as Lambrettas were also used extensively by railway maintenance crews this could also be a railway fleet number. Eventually R205 found itself in storage with a number of other GPs and Lis, all in original paint but most with various missing parts; the latter probably due to cannibalising the machines due to the apartheid sanctions cutting off the country’s supply of fresh components.
Out of Africa
In 2015, a large batch of the
