
PINASCO
- Tuning for the Vespa
PINASCO - Pure Passion! For more than five decades, the Italians have been a byword for tuning Vespas. Whether racing cylinders, pistons, ignitions, racing exhausts or shock absorbers - PINASCO stands for quality, power and performance. Although company founder Andrea Pinasco sold the company to Bettella in 1999, the products for scooters continue to be developed in his spirit.
Made in Italy
More than 50 years of experience
Successful racing as a test environment
In-house research & development
PINASCO - From the home garage into the world

Andrea Pinasco gained his first experience as a mechanic at the age of 14, when he disassembled and reassembled his Vespa 50L. He did not achieve a significant increase in performance, but he got to know the engine. At 16, Andrea Pinasco switched to a Vespa 125 GT and was annoyed by the rather modest performance. Tuning parts were not available at the time, so he had no choice but to try his hand at optimising it himself. As a teenager, he had gone to technical school for a while, after which he had maintained the machines in the family business. So the thing with the Vespa engine could not be that difficult. The idea was to install a direct-aspiration GS 150 cylinder. In the process - more by chance than planned - the first double carburettor was created. His school performance did not meet his parents' expectations, so Andrea had to work in the local pasta shop in San Gottardo. One day, he mustered up all his courage and drove his pimped-out Vespa to Milan. Straight to the editorial office of "Motociclismo", where Piero Bacchetti himself sold him an ad for his invention. Andrea paid 37,000 lira - a whole month's salary. This advertisement marked the beginning of the success story in 1969: the kit hit like a bomb and was sent from the garage at home to all over Italy. While the dual carburettor kit was largely made up of ready-made components, the 75cc kit for the V50, which appeared shortly afterwards, was a completely in-house development.
In 1975 Andrea took part in the "Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori" (EICMA) trade fair in Milan for the first time. At 23 years old, he was the youngest exhibitor, yet he already sold over 400 cylinder kits in the same year. In 1980, with a good 20 parts in his range and sales figures in the thousands, he had to move to larger premises. Not only the cylinders, but also the exhaust systems from PINASCO enjoyed great popularity worldwide. Perhaps because they were optimised for road use and, despite increased power, were hardly louder than an original exhaust. In 1981, Pinasco sold 60,000 conversion kits. In 2018, PINASCO took a big step and entered the Lambretta market. In 2020, the acquisition of the traditional Lambretta company GORI Elaborazioni by the Bettella Group was another logical step. It will be interesting to see what PINASCO will produce for the Lamis in the future.
"We have been working with SIP for about 25 years, and I know Alex and Moritz very well. The cooperation with SIP is going perfectly and we are very happy to have this contact."
–Piergiorgio Bettella, CEO Pinasco

In 1984, Andrea Pinasco realised another dream and entered racing. With a 200PE-based racing machine with twin carburettors and a long stroke, he and his team mixed up the Spanish endurance championship. Six hours on the street circuit, against a hundred competitors, with an average speed of 115 km/h - in the end they stood at the top of the podium with a narrow lead. The successes have continued to this day and the "Palmares Scuderia Pinasco" is regularly among the champions in both the largeframe and smallframe categories.
Piaggio itself was initially suspicious of the "Pinasco venture" because the Vespa was a politically correct vehicle that did not need to be tuned. Soon, however, they realised that the PINASCO products made the Vespa even more attractive for the market and Piaggio itself profited from it. In the 1980s, Andrea Pinasco was involved in a variety of projects: He worked for various companies from the Orient on the task of minimising the consumption and emission values of scooters and motorbikes. He also worked for PGO, Bajai, the Ford Group and some Swiss companies. Today, the name PINASCO still stands for high-quality products and "the Vespa", Andrea is convinced, "is and remains practical, comfortable and economical. This is not a question of nostalgia, but of quality." However, he views the contemporary four-stroke trend with a certain amount of scepticism. He finds the engines too expensive and cumbersome and would consider it better to look for more efficient solutions in the two-stroke sector. However, he himself does not feel called to do so. Instead, he has settled down in a little house in the countryside outside Genoa. Although he continues to work on "horsepower", it is now really about four-legged animals. A passion he shares with his daughter Rosa.
"With a SIP Road 2.0 Sport and 24 carburettor, you can easily outrun any 210 with the 177 racing cylinder from PINASCO. A buddy of mine installed it and rode it with the 210s on the SIP Barcelona Tour without any problems.
–Angelo, SIP Scootershop
PINASCO at SIP Scootershop
We have more than 200 PINASCO products in our range - from complete tuning kits to piston rings. There are tuning parts for beginners who want to get a taste of the subject, but also high-end accessories that are only suitable for the race track and experienced racers. Just click through the PINASCO pages and let yourself be inspired by the different possibilities.
The most popular PINASCO products at SIP Scootershop:
Long stroke shaft PINASCO for Vespa 200 Rally and others
Conclusion: The tradition created by Andrea Pinasco lives on to this day and has lost nothing of its innovation and quality.
