Modern Vespa

So many of you have seen my project, the Voodoo Buddy.
A 2008 Genuine Buddy 125 powered by a turbocharged GTS 300 engine.

If not, here's a glimpse:



In the ever increasing push to see where the edge was and answer the question NOBODY was asking about the GTS: How much boost will that thing actually take before something says enough???

Well for the sake of posterity I have the answer to that question. 25PSI.

I was out on a test run, made some changes to my wastegate setup that gave me boost control so OBVIOUSLY I cranked the boost to see where it ended up.

I made a terrifying run at full throttle and watched the boost gauge creep up to 25PSI when suddenly the power dropped. It dropped from madness inducing to just merely scary beyond all reason. I pulled over, and it was idling ok but still down on power. At that point I noticed that it was puking oil out the breather hose, which meant I had a serious blow-by problem. I rode it the mile home to the garage fine. It still was putting out mountains of power but not what it normally did...

I pulled apart the engine to confirm my suspicions. Cracked ring lands on the piston.


Yup. Not good.
Now this hasn't slowed me down any... Just yesterday I got a new Weisco forged piston installed and its back running. But to get any more power than I'm getting now I'm going to have to go for bigger injectors and E85 fuel. So for the time being I'll keep the boost down when running pump gas and enjoy my still huge power output... Ohh, on that note...



See it down there at the bottom? 53HP. And that was BEFORE the boost controller, at about 14PSI. Some back of the napkin math says that at 25PSI I should have right around 67HP.

More to come as this madness continues. Or I and my scooter explode in a ball of race fuel induced fire. One of those.

Insanity! I love it!

I'm pretty sure if I had a middle name it would be insanity

Remember to put "Update MV" in your will.

Hah! I'm 100% certain I'll be a cautionary tail for generations to come

wow, frankly I'm impressed. I figured something else would fail with that amount of boost.

awesome build. love it!

I did too actually. I had my money on blowing head gaskets via head lift and breaking studs.

I've been massively impressed with these engines. I know Vespa engines are well built but I'm pushing this thing so far outside what it was designed for that it can't even remember where that was and it just says, "Lets do it!"

Really the only problem I'm having is clutches. I've blown one stock clutch apart, and my second stock clutch(I had a spare) slips super badly and is wearing down fast so I'll have to swap it out for something better soon. But basically it just hums along at lots of boost and runs like a top.

Impressive! I'm sure it's been a fun journey. I knew a guy back in the day in Michigan that had a nitrous oxide kit on a lammie but you sir are also dancing with the devil.

Dude, 2T on NOS? I'll bet that was a wild ride! Especially with ancient suspension, I'll bet that took nerves of steel.

He sure did! Amazing guy and no surprise I believe an engineer. Got a tour of his garage and collection and it was amazing. A great collection of Cushmans as well which was cool to see.

I always thought those Cushmans were cool... On of my neighbors has a Cushman Eagle in his garage that I've tried to talk him outa a few times. He never rides it, but doesn't wanna let it go.

I just want to know the 1/4 mile

I've not yet run a 1/4 mile, but I DID do an 1/8th mile in 8.1 @ 77MPH with a badly slipping clutch (It didn't actually fully grab until about 100ft from the finish).

Using an 1/8th to quarter calculator that puts me at a 12.70 quarter assuming I didn't run outa gear. For whatever that back of napkin math is worth