Vespa ET

The Vespa ET is a range of scooters that Piaggio built under the Vespa brand, sold as the ET2 with a 50 cc two-stroke engine, the ET4 with a 125 cc four-stroke engine and, in Asia, the ET8. It was first shown in Cologne in 1996, to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the brand, and enthusiasts regard it as the start of the modern age of Vespa because it was the first to offer a four-stroke engine. It also brought Vespa scooters back to the United States after the maker had pulled out of that market in the early 1980s. The 125 cc engine had previously been used in the Piaggio Sfera. The ET had a rear drum brake, a front disc brake and an air-cooled single-cylinder engine with an aluminium head. A second series of 125 cc was presented in 1999, and a 150 cc version gave access to Italian motorways.