Our first dispatch from Bradford in Milan is this photo. Bradford didn’t tell us what is is, so we’re going to make it up: This is the 2009 Vespa GTV in pearl iridescent color-move paint with a matching Vespa sidecar. It will be available in the U.S. in one hour, for $379.99. Or, more likely, it’s just a one-off done up for the show, which is more likely because there’s nothing about new colors in the Vespa GTV press release I’m reading right now, nor is there anything about sidecars. The bikes shown in the GTV/LXV press release are all classic Vespa green or 100 Sport beige. A Piaggio-designed matching Vespa sidecar would be big news, maybe Bradford will sober up and send a caption later, or a photo of the hot new Simoncelli Gilera Runner.
UPDATE: This site is calling it a “concept.” They say Piaggio produced sidecars until 1965, I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen a Vespa-branded sidecar… Anyway, OmniMoto have some more cool EICMA photos here. (Thanks Eric!)
According to MotoBlog (italian blog)
“Piaggio has made all ‘Eicma Milan a prototype curious. Ci riferiamo ad una Vespa GTV Sidecar . We refer to a Vespa GTV Sidecar. Un prototipo vintage dallo stile che riprende le linee tondeggianti degli anni ‘50. A prototype vintage style that incorporates the rounded lines of the’50s.”
http://www.motoblog.it/post/16224/eicma-2008-prototipo-vespa-gtv-sidercar