Scooter's is indeed abound now, in all colors, (displacement) classes - from 50 to 850 cc - and power levels. They know each other from little more, which is by whom, which is the strongest, who is the fescheste. Certainly not possible to say which is the best. However, a brand stands out from the crowd always unmistakable: Vespa.
This is a story that has turned out to over more than 62 years to the myth and cult, the object of desire, fashion confession, movie star - a list of the Vespa traveling protagonist is long, it ranges from Geraldine Chaplin and Milla Jovovich Marcello Mastroianni to Antonio Banderas and Jew Law, style icon, Italian style statement and more. And no end in sight.
It was not always so. When Enrico Piaggio in 1946 from the ashes of its destruction in World War II airplane factory released the first Vespa - with 98 cc - presented as a cost-effective and purposeful everyday vehicle, the two-wheeler responded experts more than skeptical. "Trabiccolo" they called the Mopperl, which means as much as truck or even on good Viennese "Reibn". The former Moto Guzzi-Parodi boss Conte rejected a sales cooperation with Piaggio strictly, he held up the project for a disaster, condemned to fail.
The disaster came. In the first year in Pontedera in 2000 units were produced. Nowadays it holds - all Piaggio Group products together - at 680,000 vehicles per year. Vespa for the label means: So far a total of 17 million units sold worldwide. In 2007 alone, there were 117,000 units. This represents an increase of 17 percent from 2006, the year in which the Piaggio Group had gone public.
The Vespa mobilized so still. Sometimes in large numbers. There are a huge number of clubs. And now, since the anniversary year of 2006, even the "Vespa World Club" and "Vespa World Days". Its second edition in April 2008 (24 to 26) brought Vespisti 1400 from 15 countries and three continents to the wheels. 140 clubs and 5,000 participants were registered. While for most of the location was not exactly around the corner, they met in the picturesque namely Cefalù (near Palermo) in Sicily.
2008, but the year is to not have a round, but it is a jubilee year. For Piaggio presented the model number 145, the Vespa GTS 300 Super, the strongest that ever existed, and currently the most sporty. It is committed to the long-standing sports tradition of the house, because wasps were - and are - also raced, on asphalt as well as off road. An example: the Six Days of 1951, in which the Vespa has been run 5-day nine Golden. The list of sports scooters is quite long: GS (1955), 180 SS (1964), 90 SS (1965), 200 Rally (1972), ET3 (1976) and T5 "Pole Position" (1985).
But with the new 300 Sport is respectively sportiness in the foreground, rather than racing.
It looks at first glance no different than the GTS 250, which, with its 22 hp Vespa already a strong performance. Since the 300 does not matter. At 22 horsepower it is in fact remained. However, Piaggio put neatly by the capacity expansion of the liquid-cooled and via electronic fuel injection-powered single cylinder Quasar of 244 to 278 cc of the torque on it was: 2.3 Nm Plus does not sound like much, but this figure is already at 5,000 (20 Nm at 6,500 rpm 250) tours.
It has, of course, we are interested, why do not more horses can be teased out of the swept volume. The response of the Piaggio people: At even higher-performance chassis and suspension modifications would have been necessary, and that would drive up the weight and this would be at the expense of handling and agility. Ok, this is a conclusive explanation, which is the tuning scene certainly go to the bottom. Because potential for more lard is definitely there. The production version of the new 300-capacity expansion brings in all cases more powerful pulling and even more spontaneous response.
We tried to have the worthy - big city - Terrain: in Milan, the city of fashion and eternal and heavy traffic - in short, the ancestral territory scooter. There namely Piaggio had asked us to first test drive with the GTS 300 Super. Super alone was the sight of twenty Vespas outside the hotel, neatly aligned, one black and one white. The Super 'only in these two colors. Since then even the layman that there is no 250. But it is also identifiable on the lateral cooling slots in the rear panel, just as in the days of air cooling. Also there's the racy red feather in the front suspension. The show is: I am sporty.
After this impressive vividly-detailed observation it started, the Milan-traffic jams. The first station: Photo session at the roundabout. Often a standard practice, the more accustomed to us was also great iron horsemen of loosely by hand. The Vespa depends very fine on gas, fires properly from low engine speeds. One must turn not to execute the automatic anyway perfect. Well there are the enticing to light small eggs twelve-incher, but the chassis plugged cobblestones, asphalt holes, tram tracks transitions, bumps and transverse grooves away pretty confident. And the brakes seem just beginning undersized, to anchor the face unmotivated ausscherender cans or fleeing pedestrians darting across the road, ranging all.
After the station roundabout we tested also main thoroughfare streets, alleys, side streets and street crossings. Finally, because of the increasing traffic density afternoon the photographer soon got more cars and buses and trams, occasional passers than we Scooteristi before the lens (es). There have indeed all spellbound looked at the Vespa Horde but not realized that they cause picture interference. So we went first to the famous Milan's ring road to Linate. As if on cue all went - we were now only 18 because the colleagues Ehn and Farkas are demolished due to an (almost) red light - in their heads. High Speed Test. To have, as always, the lightweight decided for themselves. But with well over 120 km / h on the speedometer and chassis side without Zuckerer and Schlenkerer.
So we rode to the country, in the vicinity of a place called Novegro who is known among insiders for the twice yearly large vintage flea market. Along the way, was able to prove the large wasp that it also makes good figure outings. The skew potential is pretty neat. After the photo session with village street, church, stone wall and continue waving from our image-artists. You would now have to deal with us and quickly back to the hotel. We were still in style with our Vesponen visit a cafe or an ice cream parlor. No problem, thought the photographer, we could stay still and do as we please.
That's what we then considered fast. For no one knows about in Milan. And for the recovery of the hotel we would have needed probably hours. So we attached ourselves to the master images. They know each other so well, we calculated. It had really affected! And we did everything to hang on, spared no bus lanes, sidewalks, railways, trams, and whatever else we put in their way. Remarkably sat Josef Faber, in his capacity importer of Vespas and other fleets Piaggio Group fellow, in the limelight. Usually, he is more known as a measured, restrained two-wheeler driver. But this time he appeared simply unleashed and mixed in with Vespa Squadron engaged on the front line. The combative light in his eyes, he could cover with his fashionable sunglasses any more.
Nevertheless, we introduced the Super-Vespas without Hoppalas and unharmed at the hotel again. Apart from the already lost colleagues also complete. I mean, our photographer guides have nodded approvingly. The sample for this example, you should not even make us alla milanese. On the Austrian tour but can the next time, because the first GTS 300 copies are already rolling. Also the accessory program. Apart from the usual dashing Vespa laundry's mono-seat, top case, windshield and lots of sticker kits. So that his wasp always and everywhere recognize.
A Postscript: Even with the Super-Vespa is no room under the seat for a full face helmet. Will not you walk around with hat in hand in town and country, you have to take a jet helmet. There's quite dashing goods, but not cheap, like the Vespa 5000 Euronen are themselves not enough. For this you get but something real, which, if it is not too often ghaut around the Earth ', his money is worth.
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