Li Series 2 Stock touring conversion

This is an Li 150 series 2 converted to the GT175 kit. It looks identical to the production 186cc versions but utilises a modified 62mm 175cc conversion piston. The installation in this example is to provide standard looks with increased power and torque. Study the pictures below to see the tidy layout of this British manufactured conversion kit.

The key to the GT186 kit is it's flexibility, The standard 186cc iron barrel can have many different types of configuration depending on the engines intended use.

Options vary from vintage looking stock installations such as this one, to 215cc with the use of a 62mm stroke crank. All GT186 barrels have a large base gasket transfer port area whichgives plenty of opportunity for "blue printing" & tuning.

From the right hand side of the engine the only clue to the conversion is the slighly modified head cowling. The swept manifold takes up more space around the top of the barrel and consequently a small section of the cowling has to be removed to accommodate it.

You can see that the battery tray area is not effected by the modification.

To the uninitiated the engine looks completely standard.

From the left hand side the engine modifications are more evident but very understated. The manifold can be seen but the most obvious change is the 25mm Dellorto and the fitting of a later GP 22mm air hose.

Li series 3 Fast touring conversion

This is one of the first engines built in the USA. It is a 175 conversion with expansion pipe. The owner wanted to preserve the stock appearance of the scooter and utilised a 24mm Mikuni carb that is more readily available in the US than the UK.

Notice the low profile of the inlet manifold and reed valve chamber. It is this feature that makes it possible for the GT conversions to have manifolds that exit on the right hand or left hand sides. For reliability and stock looks the owner opted for the small 25mm manifold and airbox combination.

The 25mm manifolds clear the frame tube by 1.5-2mm. Because of this close fit it is not possible to convert GT186 barrels to the 200cc large casing stud PCD.

Just as well there's enough material in the GT186 barrel to achieve the 66mm bore required for 200cc versions that run on a standard 125cc casing!

Ken Davis's Li 125 with the first running GT200 in "Fast Touring" specification

Ken was so impressed with the performance of his Series II Li in GT186 "Touring" spec he came straight back and bagged the last remaining kit for his Li125 project. The GT200 engine was built at Gran Sport in Birmingham.

We are always interested to see how your GT186 builds and restorations got on. Please send us a short resume of your project with photos and we could include it in this gallery (web space permitting).

OK, OK so it has been a long time! what took us so long! We started this project a long time ago at Gran Sport in Birmingham. Back then there was no Imola, no SR barrels, no Magello and no Rapido either.

None of us had a clue what was really ahead of us and the highs and lows that were going to be presented. Dez knew what he wanted as an idea solution and I had a pretty good idea about the design & how we were going to get half way there.

I'd spent several years messing with 100cc karts in Germany and still did the "spannering" for friends at the odd weekend. So comprehending the workings of fast 2T engines wasn't that hard.

The inteligence came in picking the best parts and features we could transfer from the kart technology to Lambretta. We were pretty much done when we fell victim to the lack of 62mm conversion pistons that we had planned to use. Things didn't look good until Sticky happened to mention a company that supplied pattern Jap pistons. We checked it out and were greatly impressed. We could even convert some of the early cast prototypes to accept the new piston, the results were fantastic and we never looked back!

Now we hear a few things every now and again about, "Yeah yeah, Gran Turismo...it'll never happen". well for those that have heard this think again! We only intend to make small production quantities (100pcs at a time) but the pictures to the left will prove that production is real.