INTERNATIONAL SCOOTERING GALLERY

Nigel Cox Lambretta Museum

Weston, England

If you have ever been to a scooter parts swap meet in Italy, you have seen the Englishman Nigel Cox digging trough boxes or dealing for yet another Lambretta.  He attends just about every parts swap meet in Italy.  He is the person who always seems to get there first and the guy who now has the rare part that you need.

Having once met him at one such event, I vowed to someday visit his famous Lambretta Museum in Weston England.  So there I was, on vacation in London with my wife…

Weston, a seaside resort, was a three-hour train ride to the west.  On one day of our stay, the wife headed to Harrods with the credit card and I took the train to Nigel with only a pocket full of small change.

I slogged into his place, drenched from my encounter with lovely British liquid sunshine.  My dampened spirits were lifted when I stepped from reality into Lambretta heaven. Laid out before me was the largest display of Lambrettas, parts, accessories and memorabilia in the world!

The huge display floor was difficult to photograph because of the thick clutter of thousands of pieces on display.  There is no way to do justice to this awesome presentation.  You have to see it for yourself!
read more…

Mr. Lambretta of England
By Alan Dollar

If you have ever been to a scooter parts swap meet in Italy, you have seen the Englishman Nigel Cox digging trough boxes or dealing for yet another Lambretta.  He attends just about every parts swap meet in Italy.  He is the person who always seems to get there first and the guy who now has the rare part that you need.

Having once met him at one such event, I vowed to someday visit his famous Lambretta Museum in Weston England.  So there I was, on vacation in London with my wife…

Weston, a seaside resort, was a three-hour train ride to the west.  On one day of our stay, the wife headed to Harrods with the credit card and I took the train to Nigel with only a pocket full of small change.

I slogged into his place, drenched from my encounter with lovely British liquid sunshine.  My dampened spirits were lifted when I stepped from reality into Lambretta heaven. Laid out before me was the largest display of Lambrettas, parts, accessories and memorabilia in the world!

The huge display floor was difficult to photograph because of the thick clutter of thousands of pieces on display.  There is no way to do justice to this awesome presentation.  You have to see it for yourself!

In a previous article in Scoot Quarterly (Fall 2003), Vittorio Tessera is called Mr. Lambretta Worldwide.  If Vitorio is the King of Lambretta then Nigel Cox is the Crown Prince.  While Vitorio focuses on world-renowned restorations and manufacturing new parts for Lambrettas, Nigel concentrates on collecting and reselling used parts, memorabilia, and accessories.  He also caries some of Vitorio’s product line.  They are close friends. 

Vitorio’s fabulous museum in Italy, displays of wide variety of rare vintage scooters from many countries.  Nigel has zeroed in on Lambretta.  His display includes virtually every model of Lambretta ever produced starting with the Model A in 1946.

During the five-hour visit, I was shown several rooms filled with row after row of shelves stacked with Lambretta parts, engines, accessories, nostalgia and memorabilia.  Nigel repeated several times that it was all for sale.  He dismissed my questions about how much for this Lambretta or that engine and kept saying that is was all going in one lot for one price.  He knows is collection extremely rare and feels that the government should buy it for its history value.

Nigel start riding scooters in 1967 as young teenager and was later a part of the mod scooter scene that swept Britain.  In his career as a traveling sales rep, he was given a car and paid to travel throughout England.  He began running advertisements in newspapers where he was planning to go for work. He would haul the scooters home in the trunk of the car.

At first, he used them to build racing scooters.  He raced the circuit for a couple of years then gave it up. 

After finding a LD, he expanded his search to vintage Lambrettas.  Before long the territory of his scooter searches reached Italy, France, Greece and even South America.  His stories of problems with border customs officials while trying to get scooters out of their native country are both harrowing and hilarious.

Nigel’s obsession toward collecting exceeds that of anyone I have ever met! The British marauder has acquired a reputation for ravaging Italy and other places of all their Lambretta stuff on his frequent trips. 

That has raised the ire of other collectors or enthusiasts.  His attitude is that he has not prevented anyone from doing what he has done the past 20 years.   Everyone is welcome to travel the thousands of miles and spend the thousands of dollars to retrieve and bring home the thousands of items as he has done.

In his quest for everything Lambretta he has bought out old dealerships, perused Italian parts swap meets and ran newspaper ads.  Like many of us these days, he uses the Internet, and Ebay, to acquire items. He believes that if there is something you want and you will only have one chance to get it or it will be gone, you have to pay the price and go for it!

He no longer does restorations but has mechanics that do repairs daily.  With the help of his father, he sells parts, accessories and memorabilia from his shop and is responsible for many vintage Lambretta still being on the road.  There is not a part made for Lambretta that he does not have, although not all are for sale.  I asked him about a muffler for a TV series I (I know the President of VCOA is looking for one).  He said of course he had one, but it is not for sale!

Although he sells some Vespas, he personally finds Lambrettas more intricate and interesting.  His favorite a SX200 is on display in the center of his museum.

At first, all the collecting was for him.  As the interest and collection grew, he opened his first shop in 1986 to sell parts.  A few years ago moved to the large current facility.  He says he does not make any money at it because no matter how much he sells; he puts all the money into buying more Lambretta items on his still frequent excursions to Italy.

Nigel Cox boasts that his Lambretta collection is the largest collection of any kind in the world!  In other words, not matter what sort of theme or item anyone is collecting; no one has as many pieces of his or her special interest as Nigel has Lambretta stuff!  Quite a bold statement yet one that seems incontestable.  No one will ever be able to duplicate this feat!  Nigel estimates that he has over one million items of Lambretta stuff!  And, it is all for sale for one price.

After 20 years on the road, he considers his collection his pension for retirement.  At 52 years old Nigel Cox talks a lot about retiring by 55.  His entire collection is for sale for the low price of 400,000 British pounds!  Around $700,000, and it is a steal!  Go see for yourself!

 

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updated 7/1/05

 

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