916
25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DUCATI 916
P82
Feature
That success was many and varied.
Indeed, between 1994 and 1998, the
machine badged the 916, took four
WorldSBK titles (three to Briton Carl
Fogarty and one to Australian Troy
Corser), as well as countless race wins
in European, American and Australasian
The 1994 and 1995
models were adorned with
the "Ducati 916" lettering,
which was dropped for
1997 onwards. (Below)
Analog at its finest. Not a
digital gauge to be found.
superbike competition.
Fogarty is considered the Godfather of
the 916. Of the 55 WorldSBK races won by
Ducati during the 916/996/998's tenure,
Fogerty captured 43 of them, making it the
most successful machine and rider pairing
in WorldSBK history.
This year marks the 25th anniversary
since the 1994 Ducati 916 debuted on the
world stage and promptly moved the super-
bike goal posts.
I want to acknowledge Cycle News
contributor Jon Urry for his assistance in
creating this article and Ian Falloon for his
book, Ducati 916, that was used extensively
for research purposes.
Before the 916
Before you begin to think about the 916, you
need to go back to 1985 and the creation
of the first four-valve Desmodromic V-twin,
created by Massimo Bordi.
Ducati had just gone through a change
of ownership from the state-subsidized VM
Group control to become the property of Ca-
giva, located north of Varese and headed by
Claudio Castiglioni and his brother Gianfranco.
Castiglioni inherited a company with a
vast history of glorious two-valve, bevel-drive
Desmo V-twins, the design of which was
headed by the legendary Fabio Taglioni.
Beautiful as they were, the bevel-drive twins
were antiquated by the early 1980s, strug-
gling to match the power output of the new
breed of four-cylinder superbikes coming
from Japan.
