An amazing love story, told with Italian flair and style.

By Bruno dePrato, www.cycleworld.com

Italy has given the world countless beauty icons: actresses, great paintings, cathedrals, and some of the most gorgeous motor vehicles in the world. Today most motorcyclists think of Ducati when it comes to sexy bodywork, but it’s arguably little Vespa that deserves the credit. Recognizable worldwide, and now 75 years old, the Vespa not only mobilized the Italian workforce from the rubble of the second world war but did it in style. Best of all, a new Vespa is as beautiful today as it was with Audrey Hepburn sitting on the saddle decades ago.

But let’s start at the beginning. Before Vespa there was Piaggio, founded back in 1884 by Mr. Rinaldo Piaggio, a gallant 20-year-old entrepreneur. Western countries were at last moving away from coal and steam, exploring oil and internal combustion. It was a time rich with incredible opportunity and ripe for a new generation of visionaries, businessmen who believed in their own capabilities. The French called it La Belle Époque, the beautiful age.

Located in the port of Genoa, the original Piaggio company started out supplying interior components and furniture to the local shipyards, soon expanding its production to locomotives and railway carriages. When World War I erupted Rinaldo Piaggio looked to the sky and aircraft production, building new factories in Pisa and then in Pontedera. Between the first and second world wars, Piaggio grew to become one of the most prominent Italian aviation manufacturers, specializing in large, multi-engine aircraft. The company also established ties with Pratt & Whitney, manufacturing a number of R-1830 Twin Wasp engines under license; American readers will know the R-1830 powered the B-24 Liberator and C-47 transport. Piaggio went on to develop its own P.XII RC35, a twin-row 18-cylinder radial putting out 1,500 hp; four of these engines powered the Piaggio P.108, Italy’s only four-engined bomber.

Speaking of bombers: Piaggio’s Pontedera factory employed up to 10,000 people until the B-17s and Pratt & Whitney-powered B-24s visited. After the smoke cleared the factory was in ruins. It was time to rebuild with a new vision. Enter Rinaldo Piaggio’s sons, Enrico and Armando, and their two-tiered approach to getting back to work. Armando was focused on the aviation business and rebuilding the Finale Ligure aircraft factory; Enrico took one look at the post-war Italian economy and saw no market for aircraft. He believed Italy really needed basic transportation. This would be the focus of the Pontedera factory.ADVERTISEMENT

Dr. Corradino D’Ascanio, aerospace engineer and Piaggio employee, was still at his desk in Pontedera. Known and respected for his creativity and ingenuity, he was on the team which built Italy’s first helicopter. Now his job was to design a two-wheeled vehicle, more accessible and utilitarian than a contemporary motorcycle, able to cope with the awful Italian roads.

D’Ascanio didn’t really care about motorcycles, but thought something like a motorized scooter would work. A step-through frame would make it practical, but nothing available was inexpensive, reliable, or offered any weather protection.

With his aviation-engineering background, D’Ascanio started by drawing a unitized steel chassis/body. He gave it an engine/transmission/final-drive “power egg” and stuffed that under the center-rear section of the unibody and seat. The front of the vehicle was a one-piece element, a floorboard that ramped up to become a leg shield. This floorboard/leg shield featured a central backbone section to stiffen up the assembly and brace the steering axis.

That bulbous rear section also inspired the new scooter’s name: Vespa. When Enrico Piaggio first saw it, he thought it looked like a wasp.

Contrary to legend, D’Ascanio never adapted the P.108′s tailwheel suspension to the new scooter’s front suspension, nor did its 98cc two-stroke engine have anything to do with the starting system of the P.XII RC35 radial. A single-sided trailing-link front suspension held an offset front wheel, making it easy to fix flats. The same was true at the rear. The engine was offset to the right of the swingarm/rear-wheel assembly, which explains the classic Vespa bulbous rear section: On the right sits the protected engine and transmission; on the left, a removable cowl covering the spare wheel.

That bulbous rear section also inspired the new scooter’s name: Vespa. When Enrico Piaggio first saw it, he thought it looked like a wasp.

Piaggio was granted its patents on April 23, 1946, and went into production just a few months later. The original version was powered by a 3.3 hp 98cc two-stroke single; a hand selector on the left handlebar controlled the three-speed transmission, along with a clutch lever.

The small two-stroke engine had a mean tendency to overheat and seize; again D’Ascanio came to the rescue, incorporating a forced ventilation cooling system including a fan and cylinder-head baffling. Production was just 2,484 units in 1946, but Enrico Piaggio sensed he had a winner and went all-in, betting his company on the Vespa. It was a magnificent gamble; the next year, 10,535 Vespa 98s rolled off the line, and a year after that 50,000. Piaggio then introduced a 125cc version with improved suspension and expanded internationally, signing licensing contracts with Hoffman-Werke in Germany and Douglas in Bristol in the UK. More licenses followed in France and Spain. By 1953 the 125cc engine was delivering 5 hp, and sales reached past 170,000 units.

Vespa, not yet an icon, was succeeding purely on its practical merits, winning hearts and minds with its functionality and reliability. Thousands of Vespa fans started Vespa clubs, with enthusiasts from Italy to Argentina flogging their Vespas over insane distances: Milan to Tokyo, Copenhagen to Bombay, USA to Tierra del Fuego, London to Australia.

Then, in 1953, came the film Roman Holiday, with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn flashing through the streets of Rome on their Vespa. Now the whole world was watching and falling in love with the little wasp.

Vespa’s continued improvement and innovation through the 1950s is best epitomized by the Vespa 150 GS, a machine inspired by the 10 very special Vespas that had taken part in the 1951 International Six Days Trial endurance event (now the ISDE). Like all previous Vespa engines, the 150 GS was a classic two-stroke with cylinder-port induction and forced-air cooling. But its 148cc displacement came from “square” 57mm by 57mm bore and stroke construction. A high-turbulence head and a new flat-topped piston helped it deliver 8 hp at 7,500 rpm through a four-speed gearbox. The wheels had grown too, up to 10 inches from the previous eight. Top speed was 101 kph (62.7 mph)

The styling department gave the 150 GS a more muscular look with a broader, more stylish front shield and rounder rear bulges. A new cast-aluminum handlebar replaced the old steel-tube element and incorporated the headlight in its design. Given the generously rounded hips, the enthusiasts promptly called the Vespa 150 GS “Vespone”—the “-one” suffix denoting something bigger or larger. The 150 GS is the model most coveted by Vespa collectors.

Now the whole world was watching—and falling in love with the little wasp.

In 1964, D’Ascanio took on his last Vespa project, the tiny Vespa 50. This model was conceived to take advantage of a new traffic law allowing 14-year-olds to ride motorized two-wheeled vehicles up to 1.5 hp and capable of speeds up to 40 kph. The Vespa 50 is significant for two reasons: First, it exploited a new market segment, and introduced more young riders to the company. Second, the new engine canted the cylinder at 45 degrees (the earlier models set the cylinder horizontally). Most important of all, induction was now through the crankcase, with one of the crankshaft cheeks shaped to act as a sort of rotary valve. Simple and extremely functional, this new layout improved lubrication so efficiently that the premix ratio dropped to 50:1.

Full-sized Vespa models were facing a new challenge from the automotive side: Fiat had recently introduced the tiny Fiat 500. So the Vespa 50′s new engine architecture began to spread throughout the larger models, with a new 125cc unit going into production in 1966. At the same time the classic 150 GS grew to 180cc and then to 200cc. The latter was a real gas-guzzler, however, more of a pig than a wasp. To cover the 130 miles separating Bologna and Milan, I had to refuel twice, and I won’t even start about the lack of seating comfort.

In 1968 Vespa shoehrned a new and more compact 125cc engine inside a slightly modified Vespa 50 body; enter the Vespa Primavera. And just in time: The larger Vespa models were declining in popularity, and the Primavera proved to be another great marketing intuition, and was Vespa’s financial lifeline from 1968 to 1978. Piaggio had acquired Gilera, but it never brought in much cash. The Agnelli family, of Fiat fame, came to the rescue, and Umberto Agnelli became Piaggio’s new CEO. As an example of how dire things became under Agnelli, his brightest idea was to change the name from Vespa to Cosa (Thing).

Thankfully, in 1976 Chief Project Engineer Dr. Lucio Masut got things under control, refining the Primavera with a three-transfer-port cylinder and an electronic ignition to create the Vespa Primavera ET3. Two years later came the new PX series of 125, 150, and 200cc models, the latter with a separate lubrication system, obviating the need for premix. The Vespa PX is still in production in small batches because the die-hard traditionalists rate it the most classic Vespa of all time, an absolute must for any collector.

In 1983 Vespa introduced the new Vespa junior model (PK), in 50cc and 125cc. The PX and PK are the last of Vespa’s two-stroke engines.

In 1996 came Vespa’s first four-stroke, the ET4 125, which took the European market by surprise. More four-stroke models followed; in 2000 the ET4 50 set records for ultra-low fuel consumption, going 500 kilometers (310 miles) on a single tank. By 2003, Masut finalized his four-stroke revolution with the Granturismo 200L and 125L models. These were new machines from the ground up, featuring a new and much stiffer unibody structure that greatly improved handling. The steering response was vastly more precise, and teamed a front disc brake with an anti-dive front suspension.

The engine, a modern liquid-cooled SOHC four-valve unit design, featured a highly oversquare bore and stroke (72mm x 48.6 mm) and producing 19.7 hp at 8,500 rpm. Gone was the hand-shifted four-speed, replaced by a modern automatic CVT.

In 1983 Vespa introduced the new Vespa junior model. The PX and PK are the last of Vespa’s two-stroke engines.

In 2006 the Vespa GT 200L passed the torch to the GTS 250, i.e., a solid improvement in terms of engine displacement and performance with further refinements to the unibody structure and chassis. The new liquid-cooled SOHC 250cc engine had the same 72mm bore of the 200, but with a longer 60mm stroke. In addition, it featured electronic fuel injection and a marginal power increase to 21 hp at 8,500 rpm.

The GTS 250 also featured major braking upgrades: a rear disc and two-channel ABS. The growing success of the GTS 250 and 300 let Vespa do a little celebrating, and the team introduced a limited edition featuring touches of retro styling: The headlight moved back down onto the front fender, historical colors and graphics were used, and typical accessories of the past were offered. More meaningful evolution came from adopting 12-inch wheels and fatter tires. And of course, modern electronics, including a traction control system were employed, interfacing with the Vespa Mia app allowing personalized adjustments and controls. The latest Euro 4 updates helped the 300 gain almost three extra horsepower as well as more torque, making it the most powerful Vespa ever.

The Vespa junior series went through a series of name changes, going from Primavera to S and back to Primavera, but there were no real substantial differences. Their big evolution came in 2014 with the new air-cooled SOHC three-valve 125/150cc engine, a modern design which replaced the previous air-cooled SOHC two-valve. Its 155cc displacement featured a square 58.0mm x 58.6mm bore and stroke, generating almost 13 hp. Two models, the Sprint and Primavera, were separated by minor details, the most meaningful being wheel size: 11 inches for the Primavera and 12 inches for the Sprint. The junior models also got front and rear disc brakes, ABS, and Vespa Mia.

Finally, in 2015, the Vespa 946 went into production. The 946 was based on an ultrarefined concept bike featuring sheet-aluminum unibody; however, when it came time to put it into production, the marketing department opted for steel construction to keep the price in line. Still, it retained a number of solutions that set it apart from other Vespas: the right-side cowl complete with air intake and its seat design being the most evident. The 946 uses the excellent air-cooled SOHC three-valve 150cc engine. Lovely and expensive, it remains a limited-production model.

The latest evolution of the Vespa is the Elettrica. While not specifically conceived as an electric vehicle, it shares the same basic steel unibody structure of the Primavera; after all, a Vespa must look like a Vespa, even when propelled by a 4kW motor, the most powerful allowed for a “moped” under Italian law. The Elettrica benefits from low insurance rates and no yearly road tax. When riding through urban traffic its lack of top-end power is meaningless, more than offset by the torque characteristics of an electric motor.

The complete electric power unit was developed by Piaggio, including the air-cooled 4.2 kWh lithium-ion battery. While an appropriate addition for the times, the Elettrica’s sales numbers are modest. Still, about the time Vespa celebrated its 75th anniversary, it also topped a sales record of 19 million total units.

In those 75 years, Vespa has gone from using a cheap 3.3 hp two-stroke power unit to a modern and efficient 23 hp four-stroke; from rolling on 8-inch wheels to 12-inch rims; from tiny drum brakes to disc brakes and ABS. The list goes on. But at its heart, the most important aspect still remains: A Vespa is still a Vespa, unique and identifiable from miles away. They’ve always been practical. They’ve always been agile. They’ve always perfectly reflected the times. And most important, they’ve always made us smile.