Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #411288 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 96 pages

Synopsis
When it was first introduced in 1949, the Vespa scooter was an entirely new type of vehicle, the result of a flash of inspiration followed by innovative engineering and astute marketing. It captured the imagination of a generation and found a place in the hearts of all who rode it. The author tells the story of this remarkable two-wheeler, from its Italian origins through 40 years of development, with anecdotes about the machines and the colourful characters involved with them.

Customer Reviews

The book is full of illustrations but short on history.
There is a four page introduction at the begining of the book giving a brief history of Vespa scooters imported into Britain through the Douglas company. The rest of the book is basically pictures each accompanied by a caption. Some of the pictures are interesting but others have been added just to pad out the book. Overall the book lacks any cohesion and calling it a illustrated history is misleading. I bought this book hoping to learn about the history of Vespa scooters but I am disappointed with the lack of information contained within the book.

An average book.
I ordered the book expecting it to be full of interesting facts about Vespas. But I was dissapointed at the lack of it. There are plenty of photos in it, but theyr'e not that interesting. Plus they're all black and white.

Erics Book-top notch!
Few people could claim to know about Vespa scooters more than the late Eric Brockway.
Eric was the MD of Douglas motorcycles in Kingswood,
where they built and imported Vespas from 1946 at their Bristol plant.
The book doesn't pretend to be a complete guide to Vespas History, it merely shows it from the (very important) Douglas perspective.
It is however, very well priced for a good introduction to the Douglas built Vespa models and a good insight into the origins of the VCB and scootering in Geral in the 1950's.
No scooter book collection would be truly complete without this book!