Oucati 999
Just like BMW before them with
By ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOS BY KYOICHI NAKAMURA
~ ucati management's persistent
~ nightmare, ever since the Alfa
Romeo of two wheels was bought from
its previous Cagiva owners in a parlous financial state at the end of 1996
by American venture capitalists TPG,
has been what to do about the 916.
early '90s, and which, ever since
same fundamental appearance and
the Boxer, Triumph with the Bonneville, Volkswagen with the Beetle,
then, has spearheaded their model
overall architecture, have won a total
lineup in achieving both success on
of six world crowns and look like
and Porsche with the 911, Ducati was
the showroom floor and on the race
adding a seventh this season, cour-
faced with reinventing the relentlessly
circuit. There, since bringing Carl
tesy of Troy Bayliss. It all helps
Fogarty the first of his four World
cement Ducati's unique reputation as
wheeled desmoquattro design
aging but still uniquely styled two-
Superbike titles in 1994, the
the sporting marque par excellence -
icon which Massimo Tamburini
created for them back in the
916 and its 955/996/998
.successors retaining the
the company that sells for use on the
street the same motorcycles it wins
championships with on the racetrack.
Well over 50,000 versions of the
916 family and its 748 Supersport kid
sister have been sold around the
world since its debut at the 1993
Milan Show, making this Ducati's
best-selling, as well as longest-lived,
sportbike model, whose commercial
success has swelled the ranks of
ducatisti to embrace thousands of
customers sufficiently seduced by the
916's stellar looks and Superbike performance, to cross over from rival
brands and join the desmoquattro
owners' club. Ten years later, it's
become the model by which Ducati is
immediately identified by the public at
large, and has become synonymous
with the brand, thanks to the fact that
the styling has remained essentially
unchanged ever since its launch.
For many, the 916 is Ducati.
40 JULv31,2002' c u e I
e
nu...,s
