75 Years Of Vespa

This week sees the 75th anniversary of one of the greatest and best-known names in, if not exactly motorcycling, then certainly ‘powered two-wheelers’ – Vespa.

- Phil West

Originally conceived as a one-off model and created by a designer who conspicuously disliked conventional motorcycles, that first Vespa takes its birth date as April 23 1946, when its original patents were filed. That radical machine proved so successful it not only spawned a whole brand but created a new class of vehicle – scooters, became a hugely successful commercial entity, which it remains today (over 1.8million Vespas have been produced in the last decade alone) and also a cultural and fashion icon little else on two wheels can match.

Not bad for a budget, low powered utility vehicle born out of the ruins of WW2!

Like many of its modern contemporaries, such as Honda, Vespa was created out of the unique combination of circumstances at the end of WW2.

Italy’s Piaggio had primarily been an aircraft producer, but with the cessation of hostilities, its Pontedera bomber plan factory destroyed, aircraft production restricted by the Allies, a crippled Italian economy, Italian roads largely unfit for cars and a population demanding cheap transport, the company instead, like many others, decided to turn to affordable two-wheelers.

A first prototype was developed as early as 1944, by Piaggio engineers Renzo Spolti and Vittorio Casini, which featured small wheels and bodywork enclosing the central engine. But the boss Enrico Piaggio was unconvinced by its tall central section and commissioned aeronautical engineer Corradino D’Ascanio, who famously hated conventional motorcycles, to improve on the design.