Visitors to Scooter World at Newark earlier this year were treated to a unique display of classic Vespas. Big Chris explains how and why this was achieved.
I have been active within this scooter thing of ours for as long as I can remember, and have had a classic Vespa scooter on the road since January 1984. It’s my life, and it’s a good life as these little tin wasps have the ability to create lifelong friendships. They’ve been the reason that I have visited so many fascinating places, met so many wonderfully interesting people, witnessed and been part of some unforgettable happenings.
Most of the things I’ve seen have been events paying homage to the forefathers of our scene, such as riding in historic events or participating in historic competitions. But I never had an inkling that I would be present or part of a world first for the Vespa movement.
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That was until the Scooter World show of this year which is part of the much bigger Winter Classic held at Newark Showground in early January.
Team VVC
For years, as I was trading with my stall and heading up the Team Scooteroller display of machines that I’d featured within my articles during the previous year, I was also responsible for flying the flag of the Veteran Vespa Club (VVC) at the Newark Show, in a semi-official capacity. So, I was most definitely not quiet over these weekends.
This is a bit of a strange time of year to hold such an event, as the weather in January tends to be even less predictable than the rest of the year. Combine this with a lot of people not having another means to transport a scooter to the show other than to ride it, and the financial aspect of it taking place just after the festive season, and it does impact considerably. It’s often quite a challenge to get any commitment.
Three years ago, and thanks in the main to Matthew Phillips, Colin Bangs, Alan Springall and the other attending VVC members, we managed to put on the first official VVC display that there had been for a while. It was while at this event that we managed to encourage Stuart McNeill back into the fold and rejoin the club after a considerable time of absence.
With Stuart’s work life changing considerably, he was now able to get more involved with the club and as he was local to the event, he was the perfect man to pick up the baton and run with it. And run he did, committing to the project, planning and building a display for the 2024 show.
This display was excellently supported and executed and was a fitting start to the Veteran Vespa Club’s 60th anniversary year with members of Team VVC winning several individual awards and walking away with the Best Club Display trophy. This was despite winter floods of a biblical scale threatening to lay waste to all the hard work and effort that had been put in. However, as there are no problems in the VVC, only solutions, the team was ultimately victorious.
Organising and pulling off such a display is one thing, winning is even better, but it does cause a problem as to what to do next. How can such an outstanding display be matched or even bettered??
February 2024
Plans were already in place to produce another outstanding display; the space was booked so we knew what we had to work with, and Stuart got his thinking helmet on. Eventually after numerous calls and promises of support, a plan was hatched. As this was the 75th anniversary year of Douglas in regard to the start of the British Vespa production, it was decided to honour this occasion with a full lineup of every model of Vespa that was produced in England at the Douglas works in Kingswood, Bristol. This display would also include some very rare pre-production machines that were Italian, but badged as Douglas, as well as a selection of Vespa models from the decades since, including a rare US-specification Rally 200.
January 2025: Freezing Friday!
On Freezing Friday of the show, the attending members began to turn up and the Veteran Vespa Club set-up began. Stuart had worked his magic and had some wonderful backcloths and stands with matching fitted covers draped over them. This perfectly complemented the banners that had been produced for the events previously. As more and more of the entrants arrived, they got stuck in, preparing what was to be our homage to the Kingswood production. This was completed relatively efficiently, possibly due to the number of willing volunteers who were more inclined to get physically involved just to keep warm.
I, on the other hand, was busy setting up my stall and the Team Scooteroller display, but while I was trying to do a deal with some Eskimos for some seal skins to possibly turn into custom seat covers, I was also keeping a sharp eye out ready to sound the alarm if a hungry polar bear should happen to wander past. Goodness, it was cold!
With the hard work done for most, Stuart and Kris Ward were still busy, collecting some machines to drop off in the morning to complete the full lineup. Leaving them to their labours, the rest of us headed home or to our chosen accommodation, where we could thaw out and get ready for the big show day.
Frozen Solid Saturday
Saturday was again bitterly cold, so much so that the bottles of water we had taken to fill the kettle up had frozen solid overnight. But as the remaining scooters from the display were carefully placed in their respective places the show officially opened, and the public began to fill up the halls.
It was great to see so many VVC members and friends who were not showing but had come along to support the event, especially considering the cold conditions. Tea was made, cake was supplied by Jennie, Polly and our Rosie (to be honest it can’t be considered an official VVC event without cake) and Vespa-related conversation began.
There was an extra cherry on top at this year’s events as James McCabe and Matthew Phillips had been extremely supportive. Not only had they brought several machines to complete the lineup but had also brought with them portfolios full of original factory drawings, not only from Piaggio but from Douglas as well. These documents are so important to the Vespa world and to see them first hand was a dream come true; they really did create a lot of interest.
Slightly Warmer Sunday
Thankfully, Sunday was a little warmer, especially for our members from the southern tropics and at one point I even considered removing my old pit donkey jacket, but as I had only got my vest on underneath, I didn’t want to frighten our guests.
What was extremely heartwarming was finding out that several members who had displayed machines had won accolades and trophies on an individual basis, so congratulations on those worthy wins. But the best any of us could have wished for was still to come, as the award for Best Scooter Club display was ours again, for the second year running.
This was an outstanding achievement, only made possible by Stuart McNeill supported by an all-star cast of dedicated Veteran Vespa Club members, and Hell – or should I say Newark – will freeze over before I ever attempt to list them all by name for fear of unwittingly forgetting someone.
You know who you are, so please accept my warmest of thanks and admiration for what we all collectively achieved, that being producing and being part of a world first, a public display of the full Douglas Vespa production range. A living historical event that in all honesty we will probably never see the like of again.
The lineup
The Douglas production full lineup of models was as follows:
Rod Type, G, GL2, 42L2, 92L2, 152L2, and the full lineup of the 312L2 Sportique machines the Standard, the Grand Luxe, Supreme and Grand Tourer. Accompanying these were two Rod types of the first batch that were imported pre-Bristol production.
