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Ducati Test |
History on Wheels (page 4) I'd expected the TT-winning Ducati to have a muscular, meaty power delivery down low, even with those high-lift cams, and it didn't disappoint, the higher compression ratio helping it pull crisply and cleanly out of the hairpin or chicane from very low revs, with no transmission snatch or hesitation. It's as smooth and tractable as a road bike down low, and almost as measured in the way it builds revs up to 7000 rpm, when suddenly things start to happen a lot faster, as the exhaust note hardens, engine acceleration picks up and the Veglia tacho needle scoots off towards the five figure zone. But at any revs the big twin motor feels very loose and free-revving, with notably reduced inertia compared to any other bevel-drive desmo I ever rode, even Paul Smart's Imola 200-winning 750, which had not a lot less power but definitely wasn't as torquey as the Hailwood machine, nor - in spite of being smaller in capacity - had such an appetite for revs. Nepoti and Caracchi of NCR must have done a lot of work in refining the internals of the bevel-drive motor, which further benefitted from Steve Wynne's careful preparation. Really, any gear you throw at this bike is the right one, and even with the vastly improved shift action of the Hewland gearbox whose precision makes light work of clutchless upward changes, you really don't need to work the gearbox as hard as you'd expect. Yet even with the very high bottom gear that allows you to scoot out of the Mallory hairpin and into the chicane without changing up, acceleration is strong enough to leave modern 600 Supersports weighing only a little more than the Ducati's 166 kg. half-dry in your wake, with 750 riders taking a closer look at this thundering, cobby-looking timewarp racer as they have to work their engines a little harder to pass right on by. That 87 bhp is delivered to the back wheel in a forgiving, yet still deceptive manner: make sure you get the Ducati lined up right before you pull the trigger on it, because unlike any other big twin desmo I've ever ridden, it'll fast forward the surrounding scenery above that seven grand power threshold, in a way that's undeniably impressive. Riding the Ducati in what Steve Wynne terms 'something approaching anger' at Mallory Park only increased my appreciation and awe at Mike Hailwood's achievement in winning the F1 race there against the better accelerating, shorter wheelbase fours, even without the chicane that nowadays disfigures the track. The long wheelbase chassis feels ultra-stable round Gerards, especially with the Kawasaki steering damper mounted below the right clipon to stop the front wheel flapping over the bumps on the exit, but that doesn't prevent the front end pattering there as the Marzocchi forks do their best to iron out the bumps, while there's pretty dramatic power understeer on the exit both here and again at the Esses, where you have to work hard at muscling the Ducati back on line. Just back from the TT after my best-ever fifth place finish back in '78, but needing to work on preparing my bike for the next race, I couldn't get to the Post-TT Meeting to watch Mike the Bike do his stuff one more time, but I do vividly remember watching the BBC's live TV broadcast and seeing the way Hailwood threw the bike on its side at the hairpin each lap, en route to an unlikely victory. I remain as awestruck today after riding the same bike round the same track 20 years on as I was back then. Mike's relatively unsung Mallory victory was arguably an even greater achievement than his TT win, because this motorcycle is fundamentally unsuited to such a relatively tight though deceptively fast track. Hero material.... * * * * * |
