CarBrandLogos archive · Vespa · 2005

VespaGTS

The biggest Vespa: motorway-capable, and still pressed from steel.

Photo: AVMOTO · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Vespa history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Vespa GTS, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The GTS is Vespa's large scooter, introduced in the mid-2000s with a 250 cc four-stroke single and later a 300, driving through a continuously variable transmission. It is the model that answers the practical objection to the brand — that a Vespa is a city machine — by being capable of sustained speeds on open roads with a passenger aboard.

Vespa GT 200 Granturismo · Khaosaming · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

What it does not do is abandon the construction that defines the marque. The body is still a pressed-steel monocoque, at a time when almost every competing scooter uses a tubular frame under plastic panels. It is heavier as a result, and it feels different — more solid, more expensive, and repairable in ways plastic is not.

Vespa GTV 250ie 2007 · Khaosaming · CC BY-SA 4.0

In production

Built at Pontedera in Italy and also in India and Vietnam for those markets, the GTS has been in production for two decades and sits at the top of the range. It is the Vespa for people who intend to use one as transport rather than as decoration.

Vespa GT60 · Efendi17 · CC BY 3.0

At a glance