Vespa and Lambretta Motor Scooters

By Stuart Owen

Vespa and Lambretta remain the two most iconic motor scooter brands, even four decades after the latter's demise. But what made them such a European sensation in the postwar era? And why were they particularly popular in Britain in the 1950s and '60s? Motor scooter expert Stuart Owen explains the rise of Innocenti's Lambretta and Piaggio's Vespa, from the wartime ruins of Italy, through years of plenty as the two manufacturers exploited a ready market for affordable, economic transport, and then their decline into more uncertain times as motor cars trespassed on their success. He also explores the rich history of accessorising and customising the scooters, their essential role in the mod movement, and the revival in Vespa's fortunes following the release of the cult film Quadrophenia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Feb 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781784423162

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

THE ROOTS OF motor scooter evolution reach as far back as the early 1900s. The initial attempts were fairly primitive in design but nevertheless showed intent when it came to producing a cheap, compact method of transport. During the following two decades several manufacturers in different countries attempted to build on these early creations, but the idea of the motor scooter somehow never quite took off.

All of this was about to change, however, in the aftermath of the Second World War. Most countries in mainland Europe had been devastated by the conflict and would require significant re-building of their infrastructure. Transport was a key part of this and any country that could mobilise its population would have an advantage. With cars available only to the wealthiest in society, the motorcycle was now in its element, being the sole realistic option for affordable transport. There were some disadvantages, however: motorcycles were heavy and cumbersome machines, often with an engine that was big and difficult to start. They offered very little in weather protection and had an acute lack of storage space. Even more noticeable was the fact they were not designed for the female rider, with a large petrol tank to sit astride.

In 1946 the Italian company Piaggio produced its first scooter: the Vespa. Different from many predecessors of scooter design, it incorporated many new and revolutionary ideas. The Vespa was followed in 1947 by the Lambretta, designed by the Innocenti Company of Milan, and this was also markedly different from scooters of the past. Both makes quickly became popular with the Italian public and by the early 1950s were sold in huge numbers – hundreds of thousands each year.

Though it had a rather small engine, the Vespa SS90, introduced in 1966, gave amazing performance. It was the first true sports scooter produced by Piaggio, but strangely its success was not capitalised on.

Keen to exploit their success on home soil, both companies strove to export the modern scooter concept to other countries. By the 1960s the motor scooter had become a huge success across mainland Europe and the ideas embodied in the Vespa and Lambretta were copied by virtually every other motorcycle manufacturer within the industry. This paved the way for some often rather bizarre designs as they tried to capture a part of the market share. But it was the Vespa and Lambretta that led the way, in both design and marketing, and it would stay that way throughout the boom years of scooter production.

In the early days of Lambretta Concessionaires scooters were dispatched on open-frame transport to show the public exactly what was on offer.

THE BIRTH OF THE MOTOR SCOOTER

ITALY HAD SUFFERED its fair share of devastation during the Second World War. The industrial north of the country in particular, where the most damage to factories had been inflicted, needed to be rebuilt as quickly as possible in order to help the Italian economy grow, and getting the workforce mobile would prove an essential part of this process.

Piaggio was a company based in Pontedera and had been responsible for producing, amongst other things, fighter planes. During the six-year conflict, the factory was a major target and had been heavily bombed. It was in a bad state of repair and was in need of major rebuilding from the ground upwards. Rather than returning to the aerospace industry, however, it was decided that the company should address the shortage of cheap affordable transport that the country so badly needed.