Bavarian Beauties

If your PX is running a Pinasco kit then the chances are you’ve already bought a CTP product, but now they’re branching out in their own right.

The German region of Bavaria has been largely neglected by scooterists and frankly, that’s madness. The beer is superb, the food’s a carnivore’s dream and as for the roads, we challenge you to show us any better. Attempting to address this imbalance is Chiemgau Tec Production (CTP).

Working with the best

The brainchild of life-long scooterist Patrick Adam, CTP was formed in 2013 and quickly earned a reputation amongst the trade for excellence and innovation.

“In our first year of operation I visited Vespa World Days in Mantova and introduced myself to the team at Pinasco,” said Patrick.

“They were polite enough to ask what we thought of some products they had in development and I was either brave, or perhaps dumb enough to tell them where I thought things could be improved.”

That meeting marked the start of a productive relationship with Pinasco that saw CTP acting as development and prototype testing house for Pinasco’s range of VNB, VBB, Smallframe and PX tuning kits.

Although CTP are based in the idyllic rural region of Chiemgau, mid-way between Munich and Salzburg, one glance at the workshop reveals that this is far from a backwoods operation. Under their roof there’s just about everything that could be required for prototype testing.

So thorough is CTP’s approach that they have been authorised by the Technischer Überwachungsverein (TUV) to certify tuning products for road use. If that doesn’t sound like a big deal, consider that for a German vehicle to be road legal any modifications have to be entered on to a vehicle’s log book and without TUV approval that won’t happen.

That’s one reason why German catalogues list components as ‘Race use only’. The TUV is basically a more ruthless and efficient version of the DVLA. Gaining their certification puts CTP in the same league as the major motor manufacturers.

“We have enjoyed a fantastic relationship with Pinasco and continue to stock a full range of their parts, but now is the time for CTP to make their own way in the world.” said Patrick.

The first part of this strategy is to wind down the Enduro arm of CTP’s operation and concentrate solely on servicing the needs of Vespa owners. Although CTP will always cater for routine servicing, tuning and the supply of spares, the main thrust of their business is the ‘Unique Vespa’ concept.

“Over the years we have built up a huge amount of knowledge regarding the application of Pinasco components,” said Patrick, “Our range of Unique Vespas brings together all of that experience with a special and unique flair for design.

“In short, we will build a Vespa that suits the needs of an owner perfectly, but we will only build it once. There’ll be no repeat of any colour scheme; we guarantee that each of our scooters will be unique.”

Perfect showcase

Regular readers may recall already seeing two of CTP’s projects featured in the magazine. First came ‘Project Lieblingsstuck’, a pastel-coloured Vespa street racer that had been produced on behalf of a women’s fashion chain.

Next came the ‘Ducati 748 S Tribute’, a highly engineered street racer based on a VBB that had been reworked to resemble Vespa’s classic GS. The two machines are the perfect showcase of CTP’s unique approach, but Patrick has many more ideas to work on.

“We work with our clients to see what their needs are, how they ride and what they want to use the finished scooter for,” said Patrick.

“There is only one thing we won’t compromise on and that’s fitting a front disc brake. To maintain our TUV accreditation one must be fitted to any of our builds that exceed 20bhp. As that’s twice the power of a non-disc PX I don’t think that’s unreasonable!”

Off-the-peg perfection

Although Patrick is more than happy to deal with unlimited budgets, it’s his ‘plug and play’ engines that offer the perfect solution to those seeking reliability and performance.

“People don’t like to talk about failure, but it’s a fact of life. At CTP we understand Piansco-based engines like no one else. We’ve been involved in their development, seen the failures and put them right. I realise that the typical cost of €5,000 sounds like a lot, but our engines are ready to use. Factor in the price of not setting things up correctly and then suffering component failure, and a self-build engine can easily exceed that price,” said Patrick.

The two most popular engines built by CTP are the 190cc ‘Race RS’ and ‘Hill RS’. These share the same specification of long-stroke Pinasco top end, 32mm Polini carb, CNC fan and full mass ‘star’ crank, which eliminates the need for a woodruff key on the clutch.

The two motors differ in that the Hill features a short 3rd and long 4th gear. These retail at around €4,500 plus shipping.

One area that CTP are currently working on is their website, which is currently only available in German.

“Unlike some other retailers we refuse to use Google Translate,” said Patrick. “It isn’t up to the task of conveying complex technical information, but I speak good English and invite anyone with questions to send me an email or pick up the phone. Moreso I’d encourage serious buyers to pay us a visit. We have some demonstrators and are keen to show you what CTP can deliver.”

Given the beauty of Bavaria it’s an invitation we’d recommend taking up. Discovering this scooterists’ paradise on one of the most expertly assembled tuned Vespas in Europe is an opportunity not to be missed.