Vintage Thing No.104 - Luigi

Luigi looks all shiny and new here. Those front wheels were reputedly off a Ferrari. They were ultra-light but were sold off for some ridiculously high amount before Luigi came my way.

Luigi is Kermit's younger Italian brother. If my memory serves me right it was 1987 when I stumbled over Luigi at Tregrehan. Luigi is low and I am not. This was the same place where I'd seen Kermit (VT No.101) a few years before and at the time I thought I'd found Kermit again but this device was obviously Alfasud powered and had a great slab of radiator sitting up front.

I subsequently discovered that it was called Luigi and entirely new. Luigi embodied a few lessons learnt from campaigning Kermit. These included the use of a single rear wheel (albeit a spectacularly wide rear wheel) with a Citroen suspension sphere pressed into service on the home made box section swing arm.

Not a brillinat photo but it's the only image I've got of Luigi (or Kermit for that matter) in action

Phil Williams, who built both Kermit and Luigi, told me that the Alfasud engine made much more sense than a Citroen GSA motor on paper but it never lived up to expectations. Luigi still used a full Citroen GS front subframe but shoehorning a water cooled Alfasud engine and gearbox, complete with inboard discs, made for  a lot of work and required hybrid driveshafts with Alfa inner joints and Citroen outers.

I gathered that he never really took to this powertrain and latterly campaigned Luigi with a blown Citroen engine.

This is how Luigi looked when I bought it/him. Funnily enough I seem to be able to sit quite comfortably in Luigi whereas in Kermit my feet went straight passed the pedals

That was the state in which I found Luigi at Phil's place when I visited him to learn about Kermit. Luigi was slowly vegetating in Phil's garden. The blower had long gone and the Citroen engine was full of water. Of course, I wanted the matching pair of French and Italian brothers and shortly afterwards acquired a very rusty Luigi with the purpose built trailer that had originally been constructed for Kermit.

But the years of sitting outdoors in Tywardreath have taken their toll on Luigi's frame. I've stripped Luigi down, labelled its components and dry stored it. What is left of the frame is intact but only of use as a pattern to make another chassis. Once Kermit is fully back in the land of the living and up and running the rather longer term plan is to resurrect Luigi, too.

Now that's what I call a rear tyre. Whereas Kermit was designed with two rear Mini rear arms and wheels, Luigi always had a single rear wheel, albeit a very wide one, on a box section swing arm suspended by a single Citroen sphere.

Whether Luigi eventually has a Sud engine or not again remains to be seen. I happen to have a seized 1500cc unit that might be persuaded to fit and once rebuilt this could provide make an interesting comparison to the Citroen powered Kermit.

A bit of camera shake but this smudge shows Phil Williams with Luigi in Phil's garden at Tywardreath

As built, though, Luigi had a 1286cc engine to keep within the 1300cc class limit. Luigi was no slouch despite Phil's dismissive conclusions and preference for Citroen motors. I certainly saw Luigi storm up Tregrehan.

And there were always unsubstantiated rumours that Luigi had a 1500 motor.

So, sour grapes from vanquished competitors must mean Luigi had some virtues, even if it lived in the shadow of Kermit.