25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DUCATI 916
P86
Feature
swansong year, with the
1993 factory Ducatis sport-
ing a capacity of 926cc.
Bordi's four-valve design
also ushered in a new era
of production Ducati superbike
specials. From 1987 to 1993, the
851 would spawn such legend-
ary models like the Tricolor, 851
SP (Sport Production), 851 SP2,
851 SP3 and 851 SPS. With the
renaming to 888, we got the 888
the 1987 Battle of the Twins event
at Daytona. This win ensured the
validity of Bordi's design and the
new path for Ducati V-twins.
"As the combustion chamber
was much better on the 851 we
increased the power to 115 horse-
power and started doing very well
in superbike racing," said Bordi.
"This was the turning point, I be-
lieve the needle on the test bench
of the Ducati company had never
ripped past the threshold of 100
horsepower before," Bordi told
916 historian Ian Falloon.
The 851 would go on to claim
the 1990 WorldSBK Champion-
ship in the hands of Frenchman
Raymond Roche. Once capacity
was increased further to 888cc,
Ducati continued winning the
championship in 1991 and 1992
with American Doug Polen. Scott
Russell claimed the 1993 WorldS-
BK Championship on the Muzzy
Kawasaki ZXR750 from Carl Fog-
arty on an 888. It was the 888's
(Right) The 916
transcended popular
culture, appearing in
green in The Matrix
(Keanu Reeves owns
this bike). (Below) Troy
Bayliss on the ultimate
evolution of the 916—
the 998 R—during
WorldSBK in 2002.
SP4, SPS and rare SP5. There
were also the genuine 851 and
888 Racing models created by
Ducati, and over a five-year pe-
riod, only 183 of these scarce
machines were made solely for
racing.
The final production 888 of
1993 was still heavily based off
the original 851 that Lucchinelli
rode to his Daytona success,
and was by now outdated de-
spite Fogarty finishing second
in the WorldSBK Championship
that season to Russell.
While the 851 and later the
888 were racking up race wins
across the globe, in 1988,
there was a new machine under
secretive development in the Il
Centro Ricerche Cagiva center
in San Marino, headed by Mas-
simo Tamburini.
