Luscious, luxurious Gran Lusso

The Gran Lusso is an often-overlooked classic Vespa. Not only does Martin Bridgewater’s example have the look, it also has history and a serious pedigree. Big Chris takes a look

Martin Bridgewater must be one of the nicest scooterists I know, a gentleman and always willing to lend a helping hand when required. Along with that he is passionate about riding his scooters and really does put the miles in each year.

Well, that was until recently when he became seriously ill with a rare condition that took the wind right out of his sails and put the kibosh on his riding, for a while at least. Thankfully, Martin is now on the mend; not quite there yet but getting there and eagerly awaiting the day when he can mount up on his trusty classic Vespa and head off on another adventure.

So, to help him keep his chin up, I thought it was about time that we gave Martin and his scooter a little space within the pages of Scootering, his favourite publication and a magazine that was so instrumental in him getting involved with scooters in the first place.

Mr Bridgewater

Martin, now 58, was originally from West London, and for as long as he could remember had a keen interest in two-wheeled transport. A school friend of his from the sixth form had a Lambretta and Martin thought it was so cool. Around this time, some 40 years ago now, Scootering magazine was launched, and he became an avid reader from the first issue. Along with the images within this new major scooter publication, Martin, like so many others, was a big fan of Scootermania. This also kept his interest up, especially one image of a Lambretta cutdown, which he thought was superb, and made him want to get a scooter of his very own. Unfortunately, the young Martin couldn’t afford one at that time, but it wasn’t too long before he left school, got a job, and needed his own transport to get to work.

His chosen commuter scooter was a Mk1 Vespa T5 with the LCD display on the speedo. It was in red and was purchased brand new from A J Sutton in West London.

Just the two of us

Martin had the T5 for five or six years and in that time the two of them were inseparable, as he used the scooter for his daily commute, weekend socialising and attending the rallies. He even took the scooter up to Yorkshire with him when he attended college in Ilkley, where he would often be known to walk upon the moor without a hat on! Thankfully he didn’t catch his death o’ cold, but completed his college course and again headed back down south. This time it was to Guildford, where he married his college sweetheart Vanessa.

As his commute to work was now much further, he found it too much on his scooter and, as he couldn’t justify having two machines at that time, opted for a motorcycle. This could cope with the daily task in all weathers at a quicker pace, and he’s owned several different motorcycles since.

Classic is calling

That was until Martin’s circumstances changed and he was able to get back into scootering by purchasing a Vespa auto. Picking up where he had left off, he once again joined the VCB and VVC.

Many years later and post redundancy, Martin now found himself in a position to be able to purchase a classic Vespa as well as his modern version. Another change of location gave the added bonus of having access to his father-in-law’s garage to store it safely and so began the search for a suitable machine.

A few years ago, Les Smith, a big name in the Vespa scene and owner of a very substantial collection of machines, decided to thin out his collection and let the odd machine go. One particular Vespa scooter that was part of this ‘cull’ was a lovely Vespa Gran Lusso 150; this would have been around December 2018.

This machine really appealed to Martin as it tends to be a rather unjustified underdog to the much more fashionable GS and SS machines. However, it’s just as good looking a machine, but minus the premium price tag. What also appealed to Martin was the provenance that accompanied this little scooter, with some pretty big names of the scootering world being associated with it. These were all documented within the information pack he was given after the deal was done to make it his own.

The pedigree

The Vespa Gran Lusso or GL150 was an Italian-produced Vespa with a 150cc motor that was aimed at the mid-range of the market. It featured streamline styling, a trapezoid headlamp, a new rotary valve power unit of 145.45cc and four gears. The model also ran 3.50 tyres on 10-inch wheels. It was first introduced to the UK by Douglas in May 1965 at the Blackpool Motorcycle Show, with a basic price of £145 15s 6d plus purchase tax of £30 10s 11d. The model had a relatively short life span and was discontinued in October 1966 after just 17 months in production to be replaced by the Sportique.

This particular machine was supplied by Douglas Sales and Service of Kingswood, Bristol, to Moto Baldet of Campbell Street, Northampton on Friday, May 28, 1965. This business was made famous by the publicity antics of the owner Andre Baldet, a name that was to become synonymous with Vespa back in the day and a company

responsible for producing some extremely popular dealer specials. The vehicle was first registered on Friday, July 2, 1965 and collected by the first owner, who was a lady from Kettering, on Saturday, July 3, 1965.

The scooter was then again purchased by Douglas (Sales and Service) on Friday, July 17, 1968, from S J Heighton & Co Ltd in Kettering, (presumably having been taken in as part exchange) and none other than Mr Eric Brockway acquired the scooter for his own collection on Monday, August 3 the same year.

Eric Brockway was a director and general manager of Douglas (Sales and Service) Ltd as well as being the president of the Vespa Club of Britain and the Veteran Vespa Club. Eric’s private collection of Vespa scooters eventually ended up in the possession of Les Smith, another big name of the Vespa world and like Eric an ex-official of both the VCB and VVC.

With Martin now the new and proud owner of such a scooter, he wanted to keep it just as it had been, but obviously wanted it to be mechanically sound, because as much as this is a fine scooter with an equally fine lineage of former keepers, it was going to be ridden and ridden well.

Shiny Red

Once in Martin’s possession it was entrusted to a guy called Gary from Shiny Red Scooter, with clear instructions to do as little as possible to the scooter but make it good for the road and to be used. The machine was sensibly converted to 12 volts for better running and brighter lights, the exhaust was replaced with the very useful SIP Road 2 and the wheels are now tubeless, but other than that, it was just given a good wash and polish then put to work, with Martin and machine having their first serious outing at the Veteran Vespa Club Rally to the Forest of Dean in 2022.

Martin loves his little classic and up to now it has proved to be a very useful and faithful companion, with his furthest trip to date being the 225 miles he rode to the Wakefield VVC summer rally in 2023. The Gran Lusso is still in its original Ivory paint, with just the most subtle hints of personalisation in the form of a chrome horn cover and a few bits of red rubber trim.

Get well and get back in the saddle

All that now remains is for Martin to get himself back in shape, and in the same condition as his trusty Gran Lusso; a little older, perhaps and a few more scratches and dents, but 100% reliable and still up for an adventure.

All the best, mate!

Article appeared in Scootering Magazine October 2025 issue. To subscribe and grab £99 worth of freebies visit https://classicmagazines.co.uk/scootering?offer=SCOME2026