DUCATI 1199 SUPERLEGGERA
FIRST RIDE
P36
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FABRIZIO
PORROZZI, MARCO ZAMPONI
AND KEL EDGE
I
t doesn't get much better than
this. It's 9 a.m. on a Tuscan
spring day with not a cloud in
the sky and the air fresh and cool
– just right for maximum perfor-
mance from the most powerful
twin-cylinder production street-
bike ever made, a motorcycle
with the most aggressive power-
to-weight ratio ever for a bike with
lights and a license plate. And I'm
about to let it rip on one of the
world's greatest racetracks, the
Ferrari-owned Mugello Grand
Prix circuit up in the hills above
Florence, Italy with 10 laps in
splendid solitude aboard the fin-
est motorcycle currently available
for purchase from any manufac-
turer anywhere in the world.
Well, let's qualify that – be-
cause if you happened to have
the odd Euro 66,000 ($89,500)
available to spend on this modern
example of two-wheeled Renais-
sance art, and weren't sufficiently
wise or quick enough on the draw
after its launch at the Milan Show
to put a deposit down for one of
the 500 examples of the Ducati
1199 Superleggera that are being
built, you already lost out. All 500
bikes are already spoken for, net-
ting the VW/Audi-owned Italian
manufacturer a cool Euro 33 mil-
lion ($44 million) of extra turnover
- as well as untold kudos for pro-
ducing what is unquestionably
the finest street-legal motorcycle