The history of GORI is well known in Italy. WE are pleased to share this with our Customers. Sports preparation workshop for Lambretta, GORI, was born in Florence at the end of the 1950s from the innate passion for engines of Giancarlo Gori and his father Vasco who participated in regularity competitions for scooters (Giancarlo, from an early age, enjoyed assembling and makeup micromotors for 2-stroke model boats, but he was not yet old enough to open a business).

The origins date back to the now distant 1958 when the shutter of the small workshop on Lungarno Cellini 49 in Florence was raised for the first time, initially only for motorcycle and scooter repairs, then for sports preparations, especially for Lambretta models. After various experiments on mopeds of all kinds and the first “modifications” on an Itom 50. Giancarlo concentrated on the development and marketing of Lambretta models, he began to practice preparing the TV 175 model 1st family series, and then continue on the Li 2nd series, TV 175 2nd series, and Li 3rd series models.

In the “Officina del Gori”, which in the meantime had become the official Lambretta dealer, the Li 3rd series 125 models were developed to deliver the new machine, fitted with the cylinder kit raised to 175 or 200cc, modified muffler with expansion type cone, Dell’Orto SS 27 – 30 oversized carburettors and other mechanical parts that were recovered from the scrapping of old Guzzi, Gilera, Benelli, Sertum, and British motorcycles from the 40s-50s. There was immediately a great interest in the Lambrettas prepared by GORI and the growing success created a group of loyal customers, who, on the idea of Giancarlo, founded a team, the “Scuderia Gori” complete with an official logo and a lightning bolt drawn on the hoods.

“Scuderia Gori” was born to participate in competitions, there were many regularity races and rallies in which he participated, with good placings and victories, but as was the custom of the time, there were also challenges between friends or against other mopeds, scooters, prepared by “competing” workshops or even against high-powered motorcycles and cars. The Lambrettas challenged each other on roads with little traffic and straight lines, one of the usual places was the state highway, Firenze Mare, with little traffic in those years where these Sunday challenges reached a point of notoriety so high as to be followed by the public and attract the interest of the seller of ice cream, sandwiches, and drinks!

The pilots challenged each other on 400 meters starting from a standing start and among the many challenges we remember the one that saw the Lambretta GORI driven by Roberto Capolino beat a Triumph Bonneville 650 or the one in which Stefano Benelli challenged a Ferrari in acceleration, in Forte Dei Marmi. A bet for each challenge and a pizza for the company for each victory with the whole group of “GORIzzati” friends; the tastiest pizza, of course, was the one he ate after beating the Ferrari. The echoes of these challenges and the victories in the regularity races of Scuderia Gori brought a lot of notoriety to the “Officina del Gori”, Giancarlo was the first to experiment with double cylinder intake in 1964 on a scooter (Lambretta TV175 3rd series) and in the following year, 1965, still on the same Lambretta they developed the engine for the “Monza Record”, inventing a “bell” fairing that wrapped the Lambretta from the fender to the shield, but with completely original bodywork and chassis. The Record was made official by the timekeepers of the C.O.N.I. which recorded the incredible speed of 162.83 km, and in the same year relations with Innocenti deteriorated due to the lack of official support for the Record organized in Monza, promised by the house. At the end of the sixties, the interest of Officina Gori shifted for a short time to the Vespa world, being the first to create conversion boxes for Vespa 50-90s and 125 small frames.

Scuderia Gori participated in 2 editions of the GIRO d’ITALIA, 1966 and 1967, with 3 Gori-developed 90ss Vespas, winning the category and good placements in the general classification the team was led by Vasco Gori, a real ace with that little Vespa. Giancarlo could not refrain from attempting another Record, this time with the Vespa he reached the remarkable speed of 145.8 km / h.

The chassis used was that of the modified Vespa 90, cut to lower the center of gravity, the engine used was fitted with an adapted 100cc Saetta kart cylinder, with a bell-shaped fairing similar to that of the Lambretta. The Record was not officially registered, primarily due to the lack of interest of the sponsors and Piaggio, but also due to the sudden change of course of the Officina Gori which dived into the world of motorcycles, creating what was among the most beautiful and winning motorcycles. Italian Cross and Regularity, but that’s another story.