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The scooter, launched in stylish but impoverished post-war Italy as 'a small car on two wheels', has had an exuberant career that still continues to this day. Aimed initially at young people, the quaint little machines, with their small wheels and rounded bodywork, soon became a favourite with people of all ages - and occupations - around the world. Versatile and relatively cheap to produce, they are still regarded as a trendy means of getting around, but have also been turned to an extraordinarily wide range of other uses, from the utility Macquet with built-in trailer for carrying commercial goods, to the warlike TAP 56 armed with cannons and munitions.
Scooters have starred in many films. They are the trackside transport of choice for motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi, but also have a sporting pedigree in their own right. Georges Monneret crossed the Channel with a Vespa mounted on floats and, among many other adventurous journeys made on a scooter, rode his Lambretta from Paris to Tibet. Lambretta, Rumi, P.P. Roussey and Sterva have competed in the Bol d'Or endurance race.
This large-format colour book, is a glorious celebration of classic scooters, packed with more than 300 marques and models. From the Abbotsford to the Zweirad Union via a host of iconic scooters like the Vespa and Lambretta through to the not so well-known classic scooters like the Csepel, Febo and Rumi and the Triumph Tina Automatic - the scooter that thinks for itself. This is the first English language book to celebrate the entire spectrum of these much-loved machines.
Household names such as BSA, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, Triumph and Yamaha - normally associated with macho machinery - have all produced scooters, but the book pays equal attention to the obscure manufacturers who would not have been heard of beyond their home town but for the huge and affectionate following that scooters have inspired globally. The informative text is illustrated with a feast of historic and modern photographs, film posters, advertisements, publicity shots and technical diagrams, many in colour.
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Review copies available
Notes to Editors:
The information above is supplied courtesy of Haynes Publishing, please credit accordingly if you intend to use it. For more information or to request a review copy please contact Eventageous PR on 01452 260063 or email info@eventspr.co.uk
Haynes Publishing
Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ
Telephone: 01963 440635 Fax: 01963 440001 E-mail: sales@haynes.co.uk
www.haynes.co.uk
Haynes Publishing is a trading style of J H
Haynes & Co Ltd.
Registered in England, Number: 1449587 Registered Office: Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ
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Released in 2007
