Even the myths grow. The Vespa turns 70 and Pontedera is preparing to celebrate the birthday of one of the symbols of Made in Italy with a rich program of initiatives. The appointment for Vespa riders and enthusiasts is from 23rd to 25th April, to celebrate the motor vehicle that Enrico Piaggio patented on 23rd April 1946 with exhibitions, gala dinners, tours and live music. “Vespisti will come from Italy and Europe – explains the mayor of Pontedera, Simone Millozzi – and it will also be thanks to their enthusiasm that we will celebrate this special anniversary in the best possible way, so intimately linked to the history of the city”. Among the initiatives there will also be a guided tour of the Piaggio factory which, on the occasion of the rally entitled "70 years of Vespa", will exceptionally open its doors. On April 22nd preview with the inauguration at the Piaggio museum of the exhibition “Traveling with Vespa. An adventure spanning 70 years”.
It is the Vespa, which helped to restart Italy after the war but which then, manufactured from India to Brazil, became a symbol of freedom and a phenomenon of custom, a living legend of Italian ingenuity and design, copied in a thousand modi and exhibited at the MoMA in New York. And a bestseller, with over 18 million copies sold worldwide. His birthday will soon be on April 23: that day in 1946 the patent was filed in Florence for a "motorcycle with a rational complex of organs and elements with a combined frame with mudguards and bonnet covering all the mechanical parts". In the portrait traced by Ansa, which traces the stages of an extraordinary success, it is recalled that it was the scooter destined to become the most famous in the world, born from the intuition of Enrico Piaggio, who wanted to convert the family airplane company , and from the genius of Corradino D'Ascanio, an aeronautical engineer who didn't like motorcycles: together with the designer Mario D'Este, he designed one, the Mp6, which had the same performance but with the "popularity of the bike and the elegance and the convenience of the car”. He eliminated the chain, opted for a direct-drive load-bearing body, put the gearbox on the handlebar for easier driving, created a pantograph suspension borrowed from aircraft trolleys to facilitate tire changes. Piaggio took care of christening it: the wide shape but with the narrow "waist" looked like a wasp to him. The first model to leave the Pontedera factory, which has never stopped manufacturing it, was the Vespa 98cc. Two thousand examples for the first production of '46, more than quadrupled the following year when the 125 was released, 'not a motorcycle – reads the advertisement – but rather a small two-wheeled car', one million 10 years after its debut.
Vespa enthusiasts 'spread', even outside the border: in 1950 production started in Germany, in 1953 there were ten thousand service stations around the world and the Vespa clubs, created by Piaggio himself, had 50.000 members (today there are 60.000), while in 1951 20.000 Italian Vespa Day. 'Vespize yourselves for your work, for your leisure' was the imperative slogan of the Pontedera-based house in those years, which also made history in its advertising campaigns, signaling the changes of the era. Among all the most famous and surreal, 'Who Vespa eats apples (who doesn't Vespa no)', invented in 1969 by Gilberto Filippetti: divides the world and 'sides' the scooter with the young. Among the testimonials, however, the best remain Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in 'Roman Holiday', even if there are dozens of films that have immortalized her. In short, the Vespa is booming, even in models, versions and variants: more than 150 in 7 decades. The most sought after by collectors is the 125 U (which stands for utilitarian): launched in 1953 to compete with the Lambretta Innocenti, spartan aesthetics but low cost, only 7.000 units were produced. The longest-lived are the legendary 125 Primavera (launched 1968) and the subsequent Px (1977), the 'vespone' which boasts the primacy of best-selling single model: 3 million. There is the 'vespino' 50, D'Ascanio's latest creature to dispense with the license plate when it becomes mandatory for higher engine capacities: 3,5 million sold in various versions since 1963, including the 4 ET2000, which promises 500 km on a full tank. The ET4 125, on the other hand, was born in the fiftieth anniversary: it was the first boost from a 4-stroke engine and also gave new life to the company – the best-selling two-wheeler in Europe in '97 and '98 – which is going through difficult years after those of gold, and closed the century even passing to the German fund Morgan Greenfell.
With Roberto Colaninno in 2003 Piaggio became Italian again and then profitable. And the Vespa is back on the road: in a decade it triples its sales (almost one and a half million overall, 166.000 last year) and factories. The Pontedera plant was first joined by the Vietnamese one in Vinh Phuc, then the Indian one in Baramati. In 2003 the Granturismo was born, the largest and most powerful, in 2012 the 946 whose name evokes its year of birth but looks to the future and in 2015 comes out in a new guise signed by Giorgio Armani. The Sprint, the Gts range with a large body, was joined on the market by the Primavera. A 70-year adventure, celebrated with a special version, to be released mid-year, characterized by unique colors, and celebrated at home, in Pontedera, with the inauguration of the new automated painting plant, an international gathering from 23 to 25 April and the exhibition, at the Piaggio museum from 22. The protagonists are the exploits of those who, like Giorgio Bettinelli, made the most trips around the world, clocking up 254.000 km.
