Fans bid Vespa PX fond farewell

Added on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

The Vespa still has a cult following.

You could say it was the VW Beetle of the two-wheeled world.

Hundreds of scooter enthusiasts took to the South Coast this weekend to bid farewell to a scootering icon.

The final Vespa PX rolled off the production line last week as the Italian company Piaggio finally ceased production of the famous two-wheeler and keen followers of the famous scooter took to Brighton for their annual bank holiday get together.

The Vespa, first produced in the 1940’s, gained cult status after appearing in the film Roman Holiday staring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn and today, 20 million people can claim to have owned a Vespa including names such as Jennifer Lopez and Salvador Dali.

But the scooting favourite met its end this week, as ever-stringent emissions regulations handed down by the EU effectively signalled the end for the Vespa’s manual 125cc two-stroke engine, famed for its distinctive waspish sound and oil-blue exhaust smoke.

Despite selling around 15,000 units of the PX every year and a strong scooter sales market, the new legislation, known as ‘Euro 3′, make it economically unfeasible to for Piaggio to continue with the production of two-stroke engines over 50cc, bringing an end to more than 30 years of the Vespa PX.

Vespa are due to replace the PX with a range of new, automatic scooters including a 300cc model and a sport model which the company believes will make scooters more accessible to new riders and meet the latest emissions standards.

UK general manager Tony Campbell said: “In an effort to clean up emissions of all motorised vehicles, the EU government has set a number of standards to be met within certain deadlines.

“The new emissions regulations, known as “Euro 3″, make the production of a two-stroke engine larger than 50cc not economically feasible.

“The Vespa PX will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the best. A model does not last for 30 years unless it was right in the first place.”

But this weekend’s get-together of owners proved a sad time for many who will miss the Vespa and Lambretta models, who were hugely popular with the original Mods.

“My generation has grown up with the PX,” said Scootering Magazine editor Andy Gillard. “It was designed and created in 1977 when I was eight so I’ve known nothing else.

“It mobilised the masses again in the 80s. You had The Jam, Quadrophenia and the Mod revival and the PX was sitting there in the showroom.

“There were thousands of scooters on the roads again. You could buy it on hire purchase. It was style you could afford. Thirty years on people were still buying it.

“You could say it was the VW Beetle of the two-wheeled world.”

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