Piaggio turned from wartime aerospace production toward peacetime mobility. Engineer Corradino D’Ascanio created a step-through machine with enclosed bodywork, small wheels and an accessible riding position. Launched in 1946 as the Vespa 98, it became far more than transport: the scooter entered fashion, cinema and urban culture.
Motorcycles / Manufacturers / Vespa
Motor Museum · Motorcycles · Since 1946
Vespa
Vespa made the step-through scooter one of the defining mobility and design objects of post-war Europe.
1946motorcycle era begins
Italyorigin
3featured bikes
6catalogue bikes
Origins
Piaggio and Corradino D'Ascanio
Read the manufacturer through the machines that changed its engineering, racing, design, market or cultural meaning.
Featured bikes
Three turning points.
The featured layer picks the motorcycles that most clearly changed this manufacturer’s technology, market or identity.
Vespa 98
1946 · scooter
Vespa 98
One of the twentieth century’s most important mobility and industrial-design objects.
Vespa 125
1948 · scooter
Vespa 125
The machine that helped turn Vespa from an ingenious scooter into a mass cultural phenomenon.
GS 150
1955 · scooter
GS 150
A sporting high point of the classic 1950s Vespa and a design icon in its own right.
Museum catalogue
Bikes through time.
Each bike is treated like a museum object: what it was, why it mattered and where it sits in the manufacturer’s wider story.
1940s
1946–1947 · scooter · FEATURED
Vespa 98
The first Vespa used pressed-steel body construction, a step-through layout and enclosed mechanical parts to make post-war motorised transport approachable and clean.
Why it matters: One of the twentieth century’s most important mobility and industrial-design objects.
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Vespa 98
1948–1957 · scooter · FEATURED
Vespa 125
The 125 cc Vespa developed the original concept into the model family that spread rapidly through post-war Europe.
Why it matters: The machine that helped turn Vespa from an ingenious scooter into a mass cultural phenomenon.
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Vespa 125