Tony O'Brien Vespa 90 SS : Vespa Tuning: Vespa Racing

Recent times have been exceptionally exciting for the smallframe tifosi. The emergence of Lauro Caforio and his Falc Racing brand of components has brought modern technology to the Vespa. With his international Gp experience in tuning the Honda RS125 Lauro kindly turned his attention to the small block vespa unit. It kind of helps that he is a Vespa enthusiast himself! For the power levels Lauro was aiming for a massive rethink on currently available products would be necessary. The heart of any motor is the most important and we now have a Gp spec unit in the shape of the Falc crankshaft.

The barrel again is Gp derived. If you’ve ever examined an HRC RS125 cylinder you’ll see the similarities in port layout.

Of course the Falc barrel has the reed entry cast into it unlike the RS but in terms of port configuration it certainly is alike. Lauro actually casts his own RS125 barrels and they can be seen and purchased from his website.

The clutch or frizione as the Italians call it, is another work of art. Cnc machined with 4 carbon type plates, Lauro has cleverly designed the unit to retain 8 springs making a rebuild very simple as the springs cant fall. The top plate has a double lip to ensure the circlip is unable to spring out..its just very, very nice. I know that Falc Racing are never standing still..Lauro is improving things all the time.Striving for perfection .Below is a short clip of the man himself..he appears 30seconds into the video.

NOTE: thats a standing start 150m sprint in just over 6 seconds!

With my new association with Team Performance Tuning and of course my new PT motor it felt only right that a new colour was chosen. Earlier paint schemes I’ll come back to in due course. The Kawasaki green chosen was in tribute to Norrie Kerr and his famous Lc1 90ss. It was with Norrie’s blessing that the bike was painted in this shade and I felt it ‘correct’ that Norrie was asked considering how much of a legend he and his machine are still to this very day. I chose black stripes instead of the white on the Lc1 and i’m pleased as the bike has its own identity as a result.

I built the Vespa at home….

Here is the machine mid build.