It would be a world first: never before had we seen a variable timing system in a scooter engine.
Piaggio has filed a patent in this regard, to be applied to its single-cylinder, single-shaft engines, and the Vespa immediately springs to mind, which in terms of positioning and hierarchy seems to us the most suitable model for the debut of such a system.
The patent is completely different from the one dedicated to the Aprilia RSV4’s V4 engine, which we saw a few months ago, and involves an actuator connected to a shaft with a different profile.
The different profile of the shaft, depending on the positioning guaranteed by the actuator, allows the valves to be lifted differently depending on the engine speed, which results in improvements in torque delivery and the acquisition of maximum power.
We imagine that these can be increased by 25% without touching the engine capacity and, above all, guaranteeing compliance with current and future pollution standards.
We don’t know when we’ll see it, but it would be a great step forward in the world of scooters.