Supersport Ducks?

Supersport Ducks?

ROUNDUP

NOT CONTENT WITH EARLY domination of the World Superbike series this season, Ducati soon will try to crack the flourishing 600 supersport class. Booming all over the world, the class relies on lightly modified 600cc streetbikes—invariably Japanese inline-Fours—running on street tires.

Supersport rules will not permit Ducati the 55-pound, 25-percent displacement advantage its V-Twins enjoy in the Superbike class, but Ducati designer Massimo Bordi is undaunted. He has drawings fora 600cc, eight-valve, desmo V-Twin well under way, and plans to launch the new model at the end of l 992 in time for the I 993 race season. This midi-Duck will come in two flavors—as a 600ec model, built to whatever numbers are required for homologation, and as a 690cc bigbore version. Both will employ fuelinjection. share a common chassis design and be fully street-legal.

Combustion-chamber shape. valve angle, and bore/stroke will be based on the Ferrari V-12 E-1 engine being raced this season by Jean Alesi and Alain Frost, reflecting Ducati's ever-closer collaboration with the legendary Italian car manufacturer. Bordi says he expects at least 105 horsepower at the rear wheel, and a dry weight under 330 pounds. For perspective, consider that Gianluca Galasso’s Bimota Bellaria, winner of the European Supersport round at Jarama. weighs 342 pounds and delivers 94 horsepower at the rear wheel.

One must wonder what the response of the Japanese manufacturers will be to this new Italian threat. A fuel-injected, ovalpistoned, 32-valved, Honda V-Eour 600, perhaps? —Alan Cathcart