Three's A Charm For Ducati-Ferrari
THREE'S A CHARM FOR DUCATI-FERRARI
Cagiva's Ferrari-designed Four may have fizzled, but that hasn't stopped the Ducati side of the operation from collaborating with the famous Italian auto-maker.
According to insiders, Ducati and Ferrari are hard at work on a new racebike, to be powered by a three-cylinder, 900cc slice of the 3.0-liter V-10 Formula One race-car motor Ferrari will campaign next year. The displacement is important because by current rules, 900cc Triples are eligible for Superbike racing against 750cc Fours and 1000cc Twins.
The Ferrari motor will be a liquid-cooled inline design, supposedly with its cylinder bank canted way forward to lower the center of gravity and allow straight, vertical inlet tracts for a fuel-injection system. Four valves per cylinder are projected along with Ducati’s signature desmodromic actuation. The crankshaft throws will be set 120 degrees apart for even firing intervals and good balance, although a gear-driven counterbalancer is likely for extra smoothness, especially on the street-going replica that will accompany the racebike. Talk is of a 17,000-rpm redline and a staggering 180 horsepower for the racer, 130 for the streetbike.
Development is at an early stage, so speculation is that the bike won’t he unveiled until the 1997 Milan Show, and won’t be available until 1998. Because CagivaDucati own the rights to the MV Agusta logo, there’s a chance the new bike will wear that famous nameplate.
Meanwhile, work on Cagiva’s own four-cylinder motor continues. As reported previously in Roundup, initial design attempts by Ferrari proved less than successful so the project was taken in-house. That engine-which will power a variety of bikes-should debut at Milan this November.
