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- Blog
- Interview about the book "A Life in Lambretta" by Dean Orton - The Story of a Professional Mod
Go directly to Dean Orton’s new book here
“A Life in Lambretta” is a collection of stories that allows the reader to follow my experiences – from my move to Italy in 1992 to my farewell from the Rimini Lambretta Centre in 2020. A short summary could be: getting used to local quirks, the never-ending search for Lambrettas, shootings, rallies, clearing out old dealer stock, scooter tours… it’s all in there and much more. The text is complemented with many photos to add color to it all.
It’s a cool image and a cool attitude, so no – it doesn’t really surprise me that people all over the world want a piece of it. Different cultures adapt an image or subculture to their local needs and add something important to it; that’s why Mod is constantly evolving and never stands still.
Italian bureaucracy was (and is) an apparently insurmountable uphill battle – to the point where it’s almost a miracle if anything gets done at all. I had so many problems just to open a simple workshop that at some point – how shall I put it – let’s say I had to get “creative” just to get a basic mechanic’s license.
The tattoos spell “MODS” and “1980” – and that’s exactly what shaped me: I became a Mod in March 1980. A nice bonus was that the tattoos also annoyed my then business partner and my bank manager.
“Adriatica Lambretta” and later “RLC” were the realization of a personal dream. Seeing the shop grow steadily fills me with great satisfaction, even if there are some aspects I would have rejected had I still been there.
Yes, over the years I’ve found some really sought-after or rare parts in incredibly unusual places. But without wanting to sound arrogant: since scooters like the two Innocenti twin-cylinder SX200s, the Innocenti Siluro Streamliner and the engine for the Ancillotti 230cc Sprinter went through our shop, almost everything else we found pales in comparison.
Of course, it was always great to discover disc brakes or whole stacks of NOS Series 2 legshields, but I was just as happy to find generic spare parts, because they were easier to sell. If I had to choose the rarest parts, at the very top would be the simple aluminum legshield trim for the J50 Special models. As unspectacular as it sounds – in all these decades I’ve only heard of two being available, and I was only able to acquire one. The curious thing: the NOS part came from the UK, where the 50cc models were never sold.
Another remarkable find were two huge Vespa PX metal signs that had hung over a busy intersection in Athens since the 1970s. On one of our many shopping trips to Greece I noticed they were gone. It became my personal mission to find out whether they had been thrown away, sold or stored. It took 10 years of repeatedly unsuccessful searching until I finally managed to track them down and buy them. Persistence wins every time, right?
At first I was hesitant to get into the world of tuning, as I only saw a bottomless pit that would swallow both money and time. But I also knew it was necessary to cover the costs of RLC’s new, larger premises. I knew that if we were successful, it would ultimately bring publicity and sales for the products we wanted or needed to manufacture.
The name “Casa Performance” came from Vittorio Tessera, who had already asked RLC’s Mickyboy and Lorenz for support. Their shared passion for tuning, racing, testing and development made it possible to develop the products on the racetracks. My role was team manager for both the Casa Lambretta Racing Team and the Parmakit Teams. Lorenz told me at the time: “In racing you have to expect to destroy the unimaginable!” – and he was right. However, this experience was invaluable when it came to creating products with true “plug ’n’ play” quality.
Yes, I am proud of what “Casa Performance” has achieved, even though I don’t want to claim the work of others – CP products were and are created by Micky and Lorenz. My main task was to ensure that the quality was above what I personally would have accepted and to make the guys realize that “user-friendliness” is just as important as maximum performance. I always considered road use, not just the racetrack. That’s why I rode my Lambretta alone to almost every European Scooter Challenge race, to test our products also on highways and alpine passes. The guys tested on the track, I on long-distance – that way we covered the entire spectrum of use.
Which product am I particularly proud of? Probably the CasaCase engine housing, because I insisted on reinforcing all known weak points. My last big project at RLC was to develop a complete product range for the J-Range and Luna Line models, which had previously been completely ignored. I am proud that we were able to offer customers a complete range without compromises.
One small thing that still makes me smile is the “311” RLC logo (with Bartolini on his SX200 at the IOM Scooter Week) and the product names and logos that I designed until 2020. I wanted these logos to be freely usable – confident that customers would use them if they sounded cool and looked good. That’s the best advertising of all.
Now that this book is published, I can dedicate the necessary time to complete the two technical manuals for smallframe Lambrettas: one for the J-Range models, the other for the Luna Line models. The J-Range manual is almost finished, and yes, I plan to publish the first one within 2025, quickly followed by the second.
I love smallframe Lambrettas and have owned at least one continuously since 1984. Most of my first scooters were smallframes, so the term “first love” fits pretty well.
The art of gesturing with your hands, which is recognized throughout Italy! Unlike in most other cultures, where hand gestures are mostly understood as insults, Italians use a variety of gestures simply for communication. And believe me: there are some really strange ones!
Dean Orton visiting Scooter Center with his BSG Corse Lambretta
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