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You must have seen 2 wheelers with 2 wheels and 2 wheelers with 4 wheels (3 wheels at the back) but I am sure you might not have seen something like this! The scooter you are seeing is from the Italian 2 wheeler manufacturer, Piaggio and is called the MP3. It’s a 3 wheeled scooter with 2 independently sprung and tilting wheels at the front, one of the key elements that make this scooter very different from the other conventional scooters and its overwhelming success with over 100,000 MP3 scooters sold worldwide. The Piaggio MP3 has a very distinctive styling with a dual headlamp arrangement at the front and a hefty structure.
If you look at it from certain angles, you might see that it cannot be called a regular gearless scooter that we see currently. Rather, it defines a touring segment in scooters which can be an interesting market for India. The Piaggio MP3 gets engine options of either a 125cc, 4 stroke, 4 valve engine or a 278cc, 4 stroke, 4 valve engine. The 125cc engine produces 15 BHP of power at 9500 RPM and 12 Nm of torque while the 300cc version produces 22.5 BHP of power at 7500 RPM and 23.2 Nm of torque at 6500 RPM. Both the engines are mated to a CVT transmission with torque server.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdrXS8NoGxg 540 375]
Both the MP3 scooters are built on the same Double cradle high strength tubular steel frame chassis and measures 2130mm in length and 745mm in width with a wheelbase of 1490mm. The seat height stands at 780mm with Articulated quadrilateral with pull rod suspension geometry suspension at the front and Double dual action hydraulic shock absorber with adjustable spring preload type suspension at the rear. Both the versions ride on 120/70-12″ tires at the front and 140/60-14” tires at the rear. A prototype of the MP3 was showcased at the 2012 Delhi Auto Expo and our sources have confirmed that Piaggio is actually chalking out plans to launch the MP3 in India next year. Given a choice, would you be interested in buying such a vehicle?
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