Vespa 946 Emporio Armani and 70th Anniversary Edition

THE LEGENDARY ITALIAN SCOOTER BRAND LAUNCHED NOT ONE BUT TWO special-edition scooters here in India recently. The first one is the Vespa 946 Emporio Armani, costing Rs 12.05 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune). For that price you get a unique scooter that marks 40 years of Giorgio Armani’s label and Piaggio’s 130th anniversary. A coming together of two Italian style icons, the 946 in the moniker pays homage to the first year of Vespa’s production which began in 1946.

With a label like Armani attached to it, so much historical significance, and a jaw-dropping price tag to match, you can expect this scooter to be anything but ordinary. Well, the engine is the same 125-cc air-cooled, fourstroke powerplant; only here it produces 11.55 PS at 8,750 rpm and 9.6 Nm of twist at 7,750 rpm. Furthermore, it sports an aluminium cylinder-block, 220mm discs with two-channel ABS, electronic ride controls, a digital dash, electronic injection, galvanised metal parts, brown leather seats and grips, and more. According to Vespa, two people have already booked this collector’s item.

Vespa also launched another scooter at the event: a 70th anniversary special edition to commemorate the 70 years that “the wasp” has been around (1946, remember?). This is a variation of the Vespa VXL that you can buy here already, and comes priced at Rs 96,500 (ex-Pune). Unlike the 946 Emporio Armani which is an on-order CBU, this one is manufactured at Vespa’s Baramati plant. Mechanically, it is the same as the VXL and as such sports the brand’s 150-cc engine. What sets it apart, though, is the special ‘Azzuro 70’ azure body paint, which is matched with brown leather seats with white stitching. Apart from that, it also gets a limited-edition logo, of course, and a few bits and bobs, including a reworked windscreen, chromed rear carrier, a chrome perimeter guard and a fresh “glossy dust grey” paint job on the alloys.