The Best Was Yet to Come from the Michelangelo of Motorcycles
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
made it to the street model 750cc SB2 - the HB1, like But Massimo's talents weren't confined to high- the MV, had been a twin-shocker. He also helped performance products. He was responsible for the create the Ducati-powered DB1, which debuted in Mito 125, which made its debut in 1989 and was 1985 with similar integrated styling. a small-scale replica of the factory Cagiva 500GP Tamburini then went on to join Cagiva, a thriving racer-which Massimo also designed. This teen idol company (owned by two wealthy road-racing two-stroke was every kid's dream. Valentino Rossi tifosi, Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni) which won his first road race title - the 1994 Italian 125cc purchased the ailing Ducati firm in 1985. Tamburini Sport Production crown - on a Mito and its timeless ended up spending 25 years with the company. appeal kept it in production for 23 years, until First up for the design genius was the Ducati emissions finally killed it off in 2012. Paso 750 desmo V-twin sportsbike. It debuted at In 1990, Ducati achieved the Castiglionis' aim the Milan Show in November 1985 and took the of winning the World Superbike Championship, bike world by storm with its integrated bodywork with French rider Raymond Roche aboard an 851 enveloping the mechanical package. desmoquattro. It would be the first of seven world The performance limitations of the Paso's titles won by Tamburini-designed Ducatis. air-cooled desmodue two-valve engine led the But the best was yet to come from the Castiglionis to approve Bordi's plans to develop a Michelangelo of motorcycles as Massimo had by modern fuel-injected, liquid-cooled multi-valve now been dubbed. In 1989 he began work on what Ducati superbike engine. would become the 916. It had low-set headlights, The prototype desmoquattro debuted in 750cc single-sided swingarm, exhausts beneath the guise in September, 1986. From here came the 851 seat and shrink-wrapped bodywork little wider the following year, and in due course the 888 - all than a 125 Mito. Carl Fogarty's victory in the 1994 designed by Tamburini, who was also responsible World Superbike series in the bike's debut season for the new, and far more effective, generation of confirmed it went as well as it looked. Cagiva 500cc GP racers that appeared in 1989. The 916 he went on to develop was a landmark These included the mouth-watering carbon- motorcycle, with 72,696 sold, but that wasn't framed 1990 version, and eventually the V593 enough to prop up the crumbling Cagiva empire that John Kocinski took to a third place in the 1994 and American financiers TPG purchased Ducati 500GP world championship. in 1996. Tamburini opted to stay with Cagiva and The best was yet to come from the Michelangelo of motorcycles Timeline 1989 - cagiva SOOGP bike 1993 - Ducati 916 John Kocinski finished third in the 1994 c'ship Quite simply, a legend 102^3 amcn.com.au .