Ican’timagine forone minutethat
Colin would haveenvisagedwhatwould
happen by the endonthedecade. Who
canblamehim?Ifany one of us had
been in his place,wesurelywould have
thought exactlythesame? Heliststhat
aLambrettawas rollingoff the
productionlineevery 55 seconds.At
thatrate ofproduction,itwould beeasy
tothink thatitwouldlastforever; allthe
different procedurestoproduce each
componentand storethembeforefinally
placing themonthe endproduct.
Hundredsofpeopleconstantlyonthe
move,how could anyonepredict what
wasto come?
They think it’sall over...
It’sbeenwelldocumented whereit
actually didgowrong,and whenwelook
back it’s easy to discuss with hindsight.
Even Innocenti themselvesknew
towardsthe end, butbythenitwas too
lateto turnthings round. Perhaps,ina
way,it'snot suchabad thingafter all,
because ifInnocentihad continued
productionthen theLambrettamight
nothavethe iconic status it hastoday.
Instead, peoplewould bebuying
something totally differentbythesame
126 |SCOOTERING|AUGUST2019
