Vespa is an Italian brand of scooter manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian. The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy to a full line of scooters and one of seven companies today owned by Piaggio. From their inception, Vespa scooters have been known for their painted, pressed steel unibody which combines a complete cowling for the engine (enclosing the engine mechanism and concealing dirt or grease), a flat floorboard (providing foot protection), and a prominent front fairing (providing wind protection) into a structural unit.
More than 16 million Vespa motor scooters have been made to date in thirteen countries and sold around the world. When he first saw the prototype, commissioned from Corradino D’Ascanio, a distinguished aero-engineer, industrialist Enrico Piaggio said, “It looks like a wasp!” Or vespa in Italian. Within months of Piaggio’s latest venture going into production in 1946, the Italian language possessed a new verb, vespare, to go somewhere on a Vespa.
D’Ascanio’s Vespa was seductive. It was also cheap and reliable, while its step-through frame meant that women could ride it in skirts, and its concealed engine – tucked under the seat or over its small back wheel – kept oil, grease and dirt from chic Italian clothes.
More than this, the Vespa – which happened to sound like a wasp, too – was fun. Especially so in a post-war Italy still recovering from the Allied bombings and that now turned to the production of modest machines for a domestic market longing for entertainment but with precious little to spend.
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