A Little Vespa History

I've always thought that the story of the vespa was pretty interesting, so I decided that I'd include a short summary of it on this page.

Vespas story begins in the bombed out, war-ravaged, Italy of 1945. All its people returning home from the battlefields, with no jobs, and very little hope of finding employment in a country so hard hit by such a major war. Most of the countries resources, food and vehicles had been used by Mussolini's army and now lay wasted and ruined. The Piaggio company that had produced airplanes (among other things) during the war lay in ruins too. The two owners, brothers Enrico and Armando Piaggio had to find a way to save their company, or watch it become another casualty of the war. They decided the best way to go would be to build a new form of transportation that would be fast, simple, easy on gas, and affordable. They considered motorcycles, but when they looked around and saw that what they had left to build with was mostly airplane parts. Ever notice that the front forks on a vespa scooter is just one sided? One side of the wheel, the left side, is open. It doesn't connect to the fork.

The first vespa forks were actual pieces of landing gear from Mussolini's airplanes, and the design has stuck since. Also, the first engines were used by the Italian Air Force as starter motors for their propeller planes. They would wheel up carts with engines mounted to them to spin the props/engines. The large amounts of airplane sheet metal were used to make a revolutionary new machine that would use its body as a frame also. Pretty clever, eh? The engine was so simple that it didn't even need an oil pump and by combining engine and transmission, a minimum of space was used. Most parts were cast in aluminum to prevent corrosion, the engine would only weigh 45 lbs.

There were only 6 moving parts!

The dirty hot mechanics of the machine would be put behind the driver, and legsheilds and a floorboard would help to keep road grime off the rider. The design would allow men to stradle the long seat as they would a motorcycle, but allow ladies to ride in a skirt with their knees together. The scooter would be tough enough to travel bumpy backroads, but quick enough to travel in cities with ease. When the people at the Piaggio plant saw the first hand-built Vespa they said, "who would buy that?".

The bulbous rear, thin mid section and wide front earned it the name "vespa" which means wasp in Italian. But people were hired and the scooters started rolling off the assembly line. They caught on like wildfire, so in demand that Piaggio had to triple the size of their already sizable factory. There were waiting lists and the Piaggio Company employed one fifth of the population of Italy in some capacity, and millions more abroad were selling the Vespa. In 1956, only 11 years after it started, Piaggio produced its 1millionth Vespa. A Vespa culture had sprung up, not only was it transportation, it was a hobby. Clubs began all over Europe and in America, there were several accessories you could buy such as a wicker child seat that attached to the front, or a vanity antennae that provided stations to a non-existant radio, flags, pinstriping, and lots of chrome. The vespa was well designed and largely trouble-free with simple maintenance.

It was easy to work on. It was unique. No young Italian would be without one, and now a new generation of Americans are discovering the great little wasp and reviving them. Alot of the vespas driven today outdate thier riders by a few years, but still provide reliable and fun transportation.