Ducati 851 Eight-Valve
The Birth of a Superbike
Congratulations, it's a Twin
Here's a hypothetical situation for you: Let's say you were to take a modern Superbike, one capable of qualifying about, oh, wheel-to-wheel with the likes of Bubba Shobert's Honda and Jimmy Filice's Yamah, and you entered that bike in Daytona Speedweek's Pro-Twins 50 mile race. And let's say you put a former 500cc world roadracing champion on it. Would that be a fair matchup? Would you expect the bike to have any real competition in the race?
Not likely. But that's exactly what happened last year at Daytona. Marco Lucchinelli, 1981 500cc world roadracing champ, entered the Pro-Twins event on a motorcycle that would have been more at home in the Superbike race. His motorcycle was ineligible for Superbike competition, however, since it wasn't a production machine; but it was perfectly legal for Pro-Twins racing, for one simple reasone: It had two cylinders.
That's right - a four-stroke Twin capable of running with some of the fastest Fours on Earth. The bike in question: the Ducati 851 Eight-Valve.
Lucchinelli and his obscenely fast works Ducati humiliated the competiton. They won, naturally, going away.
Specifications
General | |
---|---|
List Price | $20,995 |
Importer | Cagiva North America |
Customer service phone | (213) 538-9337 |
Engine | liquid-cooled, four-stroke Twin |
Bore x stroke | 92.0 x 64.0mm |
Displacement | 851cc |
Compression ratio | 11:1 |
Claimed power | 110 bhp @ 9600 rpm |
Carburetion | fuel injection |
Weight: Tank empty Tank full |
417 lb. 445 lb. |
Fuel capacity | 4.6 gal. |
Wheelbase | 57.1 in. |
Seat height | 29.9 in. |
Tires: Front Rear |
120/60 V17 Michelin Slick 180/67 V17 Michelin Radial Slick |
Measured top speed | 154 mph |