Vespa Siluro By Phil Aynsley

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My friend Phil Aynsley just scanned a bunch of old transparencies he shot back in 2000. The Vespa Siluro was designed in 1951 to break the standing kilometre world record. On 9th February, on the Rome-Ostia motorway, rider Dino Mazzoncini broke the record with a time of 21.4 seconds and an average speed of 171.1kph. The very organic design (by Corradino D'Ascanio) used a 125cc water-cooled 2-stroke with two horizontally opposed pistons that produced 17.2hp at 9,500rpm. Photographed in Pontedera, Italy. 2000.