Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128162
Ducat; 8V/851 By ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS By PHIL MASTERS his year marks the 15th anniversary of the World Superbike Championship, during which Italy's Ducati has won nine World titles with its trademark desmoquattro family of Y-twins. But nowadays, with twin-cylinder bikes dominating World Superbike racing, it's hard to appreciate just how scorned and second-best any racer with less than four cylinders was viewed as being back in 1987. Those of us who raced them were considered hopeless romantics, slightly eccentric gentlemen racers content to make up the numbers which is probably why, in concocting the rules for the new World Superbike category, the FIM gave twin-cylinder motorcycles a 1000cc-capacity edge, against 750cc fours. They thought we needed it. The irony is that the bike that I tested at Misano exactly 15 years ago, the bike which kickstarted Tardozzi, measured a mere 851 cc. This was mainly because of budgetary reasons, as it used the same crankcase design as the company's existing 750cc Pantah desmodue. But Massimo Bordi's mold-breaking engine set many new benchmarks for a Ducati motorcycle. While still retaining the firm's trademark 90degree Y-twin format, Bordi's desmo(Above) The one and only Duc:ati 8V/851 prototype was ridden by Marc:o Luc:c:hlnelli In the 1987 World Superblke Championship. (Left) Note the transparent vertic:al strip on the fiberglass fuel tank; this was the bike's fuel gauge. Pretty oldsc:hool, eh? World Champion Troy Bayliss is leading the points table this year, it's still essentially the same engine at heart only with much more aggressive engine dimensions of 104 x 58.8mm for Bayliss' bike, compared to the 92 x 74mm of Lucchinelli's prototype but also more weight: the Superbike (RIght) This Is a shot of the 8V1851 In 1986 under c:onstruc:tlon at the Duc:atl fac:tory, with (from left to right) Fabio Taglioni, Massimo Bordi, Franc:o Fame and P1erlugl Mangoll, a who's who of Duc:atl history, looking things over. Ducati's long and glorious roll call of Superbike race victories at the world level since then, didn't take full advantage of that capacity break. For the prototype Ducati desmoquattro, which exploded onto the world stage with Marco Lucchinelli's decisive victory in that year's prestigious Battle of the Twins at Daytona, followed by a succession of victories in the Italian Superbike series over future World Superbike Champion Fred Merkel's Team Rumi RC30 Honda and the fuel-injected FZ750 Yamaha-engined works Bimota of - ironically - today's Ducati Corse team manager Davide 38 JULY 10, 2002' ... U ..... (Above) Sir Alan rides the bike that kic:ked his butt at Daytona in the 1987 BatUe of the Twins event. quattro was the first Ducati with electronic fuel injection, water-cooling, and more than two valves per cylinder, and while, since then, the Bologna factory's careful empirical development of his overall concept has seen the 120 hp at 11,500 rpm produced by Lucchinelli's 1987 8Y/851 prototype increase to the 187 hp at 12,100 rpm delivered by the 998R with which Ducati's defending n e _ s (Left) Luc:c:hinelli's 8V1851 produc:ed t 20 hp and weighed in at 330 pounds In 1987, c:ompared to Bayliss' c:u.....nt fac:tory 998R, whlc:h makes 187 hp and weighs 356 pounds. rule book requires today's 998R to scale 356 pounds, whereas Marco's BoTT prototype weighed a mere 330 pounds, even though it was fitted with an electric starter and heavy fiberglass bodywork. Getting it down to 308 pounds would have been no problem, said Franco Fame, the legendary Ducati R&D guru so greatly responsible for Ducati's many world titles over the years, who's still in the World Superbike paddock working for the NCR satellite team and its riders