By Alan Cathcart
Photos by Kel Edge
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t's so obvious , yo u not ice it a t once
after jus t th e fir s t tw o t u rn at
Zeltweg, Aus tria's mountainside A-I
Ring: Ducati engineers deli vered the Big
Fix in 1998.
Instead of the bad -temper ed , unru ly
handful th at th e ' 97 works d esm o VC
twin su pe rbike' had becom e - in a misgu ided effort to counter Honda's horsepow er tru m p card by prod u cing ex tra
horsep ower a t the expense of all else the '98 title winner is tha t rar e thing : a
bike that' s even more po tent. yet at the
same time mu ch eas ier to rid e.
Th e resu lt wa s a successio n of lap
reco rd s, 10 race wi ns a nd tw o Wor ld
titles, one for the rider and one for the
manufacturer.
So wh en you ge t har d on the gas out
of either of those tw o first-gea r turns
s tarting an A-I Rin g lap , instead of a
bru sque, explosive blast of power that
sends the red V-twin racer snaking and
weaving out of the turn while you grapp le with tr ying to make the rea r ti re
hook up a nd the front w heel po int in
roughly t h e righ t di rec tio n , the ' 98
Ducati jus t does wha t its pr ed ecessor s
always did two ye: rs ago and befor e,
except bett er.
j
Welcom e to the E-ticke t rid e a long
Thund er Road. From 6000 rpm up, there
is a lo vel y , li q u id burst of p ow er , a
stro ng, progr essive but irresistible ur ge
th a t' s deliver ed when you twi st th at
wrist a t a lmos t any rpm on the la rgefo rmat d igit a l ta ch . (I t a ls o di spl ays
your lap time and water temp.)
Tho ugh -10 hp up on semiworks cus-
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Ducati's latest 996cc superbike once again
proved to be the top superbike in the field ,
pr oviding both more power and better
tra ctability than the previous version.
