Vespa - 1A014447 - Exaust valve › 22.2 mm

Vespa

History

Vespa is a brand of mopeds and scooters produced by the Italian company Piaggio. The company was founded in Genoa in 1884 by the then twenty-year-old Rinaldo Piaggio. Initially he focused on the layout of the luxury sea-going vessels that were built in Genoa. For example, the company built steam-driven sawing machines, later also produced rail vehicles (1908), motor boats and even large aircraft (1915). The most important innovation introduced by Piaggio at the time was the pressure cabin for aircraft. Rinaldo Piaggio died in 1938, leaving his two factories (in Pisa and Pontedera) to his sons Enrique and Armando Piaggio.

The first Vespa

In 1946, Piaggio became famous for the production of scooters that were named Vespa (wasp). Many aircraft parts, such as the front wheel the nose wheel of the earlier aircraft was used, and the engine was a custom starter. Soon these scooters, designed by Corradino d'Ascanio, were popular in post-war Italy, where there was a great need for simple means of transport. Vespa became a brand name.

In April 1946, this new, functional and innovative vehicle was presented to the public for the first time at a Golf Club in Rome. The shield with relief became the new logo, which replaced the old Piaggio plane. Vespa was immediately successful, to astonishment and skepticism both in the media and in the general public. The first sales of Vespa took place through a small dealer network and the price of the standard model was 55,000 lire and for the deluxe version paid 60,000 lire.

Piaggio in the present

In 1964 the company Piaggio was split up. Enrique Piaggio would fully occupy himself with scooters, motorcycles and mopeds. His brother Armando (died 1965) focused on the production of aircraft. Gilera has also been part of the Piaggio group since 1970. Various Vespa moped models were also released under the brand name Piaggio. Since 1999, Piaggio has been owned by Morgan Grenfell Private Equity. In 2001 Piaggio acquired the Spanish brand Derbi and also bought 20% of the shares of MV Agusta. In 2004, Piaggio also took over the Aprilia brand. In 1989, the Austrian Puch was already taken over by Piaggio.

Piaggio was built for Daihatsu Hijet between 1992 and 2002. Since then, Piaggio de Porter has been building on the basis of a Daihatsu license.

At the moment Piaggio is the most important producer of scooters, in particular Piaggio, Puch, Vespa and Gilera, as well as one of the most important motorcycle manufacturers (Moto Guzzi, Aprilia). Known scooter models from Piaggio include the Fly and the Zip. Probably the most striking model is the MP3, a three-wheeled version.