Lambretta Li125 Series 4 / Lambretta 125 Normale.

It was long thought that the series 4 was a special or government order but we can now dismiss that theory. With no information ever published publicly, no sales brochures, user manuals and such produced, has just lead to some speculation in recent years. Pete Davies of the British Lambretta Archive and leading authority on these machines has spent years trying to answer questions regarding the mysterious series 4. He's written various articles and a chapter dedicated to them in his book The Lambretta Bible.
However as a keen Anorak of all things Lambretta and member of the BLA, I have acquired various documents over my years of collecting, after a conversation with Pete over a coffee or two at my house earlier in the year, he set me a challenge, which he quite often does, to find out what I can about these mysterious machines in particular.
Touche Sir!, I see you and I raise you my friend. I Sent him a text with a few references to some files I had in my Archive. He was soon on to writing what may possibly be the final article on them, which has since been published in Classic Scoorterist Scene magazine.
In further addition to that article I'd like to provide some technical information that maybe of interest to some people in order to paint a clear picture.

We can start by taking a look at the production of the Li range for a view of production on the Innocenti factory floor, to me this is most important in order to guage the intention for Innocenti and it's market placement.

Li125 S3 December 1961 – June 1966
Li125 Special October 1965 – January 1969
Li150 S3 Janualry 1962
Li 150 Special September 1963 – October 1966 – This was then replaced by the 150 Special X.

So Innocenti ceased it's production of the Li125 Series 3 in June 1966, however it's larger CC sister model, the Li150 remained in production through to January 1967, then subsequently after a 3 month gap in production the final 274 Li150's were built for the American Market. We know this from the production records “Chiusura a consuntivo produzione anno 1969” from the factory.

The earliest records that we have are the Homologation Certificates from the Italian Ministry of Transport. The certificate of confomity which is updating IGM 0902 OM, that of the Li 125 Series 3 and is dated 01/08/1968 to introduce the Series 4 to the market, and from this we can see Innocenti intended, if only for a short period, to continue production and offer a basic Li125 model.
The Li125 series 3 had several amendments to it's homologation papers too and also mention the series 4. conforming to these updates.

2297/2250/4 – 13/04/1962
0225/2250/4 – 06/07/1963
2803/2250/4 – 06/09/1967

Taking a look back on the production records 1472 Li125 Normale were produced in September, October and November of 1967, however the Frame prefix changed to Li4 and Frame and Engine Numbers starting from 148000, as noted on the homologation certificate.

These 1472 machines, featured various inconsistencies which for years, Pete has noted the different characteristics of the components on surviving examples, from studying various factory amendments issued by Innocenti I have compiled the following part numbers for all of the updates issued to the Li 125 Normale. Production of machines on the factory floor, saw all old stock of parts used until depleation and subsequently replaced by the following updated components. These parts were intended replacemnet parts for the Li125 series 3 too.

Pre Mod – Post Mod
19111015 – 19411015 Cylinder Head
19111003 – 19811005 Gasket
19030003 – 19430008 1st Gear
19830009 – 19430009 2nd Gear
19830005 – 19430011 3rd Gear
19830001 – 19530501 Main Shaft
00412348 – 00412435 Main Jet of 98
19911004 – 19411004 Manifold
19955081 – 20130103 & 20130104 L & R Springs
19955083 & 19955082 – 20130105 Plate Spring Retainer
19955150 – 19955098 Right Hand Side Panel
19955140 – 19955097 Left Hand Side Panel
19950086 – 19950117 Horn Casting
19950069 – 19550508 Badge Retainer
19022015 – 20070004 Protection
***NEW** - 20034023 Cup-Badge Pin
19250071 – 19550509 Badge
***NEW** - 20020046 Ball for Fig:89-90
19960027 – 19560026 Bush
19060090 – 19560100 Piston
15060070 – 20320048 Buffer
19960010 – 19560030 Fork
19960060 – 19560120 Lever
19960050 – 19560110 Lever
19986017 – 19586505 Tie Rod
19086018 – 19586504 Gasket
19986010 – 19586501 Luggage Box
15086017 – 19586021 Tie Rod
19910020 – 19510510 Cover with Fig:28-29
19930031 – 19530502 Shaft
19950021 – 19550024 & 19550025 Buffer
19945110 – 19545140 Rear Hub With Cone
19045003 – 19545006 Cone
15044110 – 15044110 (post mod) 19544120 (pre mod) Nut.
19023008 – 82128011 Nut
19916018 – 22016260 Inlet Manifold
19950053 – 22050053 Right Hand Footboard
19950054 – 22050054 Left Hand Footboard

So from this, we can see that the anomoly of parts found on surviving examples consisted of pre and post modification parts. As such these post modification parts were subsequently made available to the Innocenti spares stockists globally. Series 3 Parts catalogues should have been updated with the above part numbers. Series 4 machines were issued with an Li125 series 3 user Manual when purchased.

So are they rare and do they command more money? with respect of rarity yes and no, they are after all, just an update of the Li series 3, but desirable nonetheless to the anoraks out there. I don't think that constitutes a considerable higher increase in value, however, that said and with respect of agreed value for insurance purposes, they do come up for sale occasionally but it's not something that you can replace easily, so that should be taken in to consideration.

Myself and Pete Bla Davies continue to keep the series 4 Register of surviving examples growing by adding more and more Frame and Engine numbers to the list as they come to light and noting any pre and post modification parts fitted. Survivors have been found all over Italy, and many now reside in the UK.

John Walklate (Johnny Lambrettista)