Talk:Vespa 150 TAP

Untitled
What about some dates?

I am rewriting this article as most of is plagiarized from here: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2006/12/mystery-photo-one-seriously-empowered.html --DOHC Holiday 19:10, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Seriously garbled
French airborne troops are TAP: Troupes aéroportées; aeról is not a French word. Any source of information this garbled is highly questionable - more research is clearly needed. Awien (talk) 21:29, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

"Mle 56" probably stands for "Modèle 56".

Unusual article?
Well done the people who turned what was garbled nonsense into an interesting article.

Now you might even want to add it to the list of unusual articles, the scooter that went to war or something of the sort.

Awien (talk) 13:33, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Conflicting information?
"enabling the weapon to be fired from the Vespa frame."

"the gun was mounted on a tripod which was also carried by the scooter, befor [sic] being fired."

so which was it?

24.16.244.73 (talk) 07:46, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

My understanding is that it could be fired from the frame, but it wouldn't be a good idea because you'd never hit anything, which is why they used the tripod instead.

RowanEvans (talk) 12:02, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

The recoiless rifle was fired from a tripod in normal use, so normally you would take it off and fire it on the tripod. I don't think (not 100% sure) that they were fired from the shoulder. It could be fired from the chasssis in an emergency. Deathlibrarian (talk) 23:36, 1 December 2020 (UTC)

Broken link
The second external link "Big Bang Ricochet 023: France’s Troupes Aéroportées" appears to be broken. I could not immediately find anywhere that the page might have been moved to. Delete the link? AlanSiegrist (talk) 05:36, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

firing from vespa frame
Apart from the contradictions, a recioless rifle should be able to fire from the vespa. In addition, there are rumors about it being able to be fired when on the move, but only by the most experienced gun crews using the unit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.230.97.208 (talk) 04:35, 31 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm pretty sure any crew could have fired it on the move, but if it's an anti armor weapon, it needs to be well aimed. To aim it that well on the move would have to mean an urban battle, where a scooter could sneak up on the enemy relatively unnoticed among all the civilian traffic. This is basically a very small Technical (vehicle). GMRE (talk) 12:24, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

People seem to agree it can be fired from the frame, and possibly while on the move, so I will revert. Deathlibrarian (talk) 07:40, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

Citation 4
The final paragraph notes that the 2 stroke engine (only 150 cc's according to the source) was "enough to ram any vehicle in an emergency". After reading the source, it mentions no where that the Vespa was strong enough to ram anything. Let alone the fact that ramming anything in that vehicle would most likely be catastrophic for the operator. In fact, the source notes that the vehicle is slow to accelerate but could "eventually" reach 50 mph. 2601:283:C001:CEF0:5836:444E:B16:B316 (talk) 13:37, 25 December 2021 (UTC)

Source warning
I just wanted to let people know of what I noticed while looking for sources. Two of the "best" sources people could rely on are the | Hagerty article and the | Popular Mechanics article for this article, and some info here seems to have been taken from the Popular Mechanics article (some sources are the same), but I noticed that the Hagerty article mentions the Popular Mechanics article as a source, and the Popular Mechanics article links to some self-published sources, like | this "Riding Vintage" article, which seems to be a self-published blog.

Very few reliable sources seem to have written on this scooter and it looks like there might be a start of circular referencing, as Source A quotes Source B, which quotes Source C, which is self-published. Source C could decide to modify the article and list Source A or B as a source, and we'd be in a circle.

All that to say that I would stay vigilant when it comes to sources for the 150 T.A.P., and I thought it would be good to mention this. Flying Ventana (talk) 00:39, 7 May 2024 (UTC)


 * For some reason the links for Hagerty and Popular Mechanics are broken, so I'll just link them directly:
 * Popular Mechanics article: https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a34823483/vespa-150-tap-french-combat-scooters-military-history/
 * Hagerty article: https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/this-50s-vespa-military-vehicle-proves-size-doesnt-matter/ Flying Ventana (talk) 00:43, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I've just noticed the same thing with two other "reliable" sources, which are this Business Insider article and this New Atlas article . The Business Insider article is linked in the Popular Mechanics article I've mentioned earlier; and it also links to the New Atlas article, which links to this self-published blog article from 2012 . Flying Ventana (talk) 00:55, 7 May 2024 (UTC)