HEAD TO HEAD
2009 – 2011 Ducati 1198
£7500-£10,000 170bhp 177mph 194kg 1198cc 90° V-twin
It’s been almost a decade since Ducati’s 1098 became the 1198. That extra 99cc was a gift few sane beings had necessarily asked for — the 1098 was already a violent, physically challenging bully of a superbike — but lobbing in a bigger engine never once put off a Ducati buyer. After all, if you thought a 160bhp sledgehammer was a good idea, then why wouldn’t a 170bhp sledgehammer be even better?
As well as even more power, the 1198 pioneered something truly prophetic: race-developed traction control. At first it was exclusive to the premium S model, though for its final year in 2011 the base model boasted it too. And yet the 1198 was built on traditional Ducati engineering; a tubular-steel trellis frame and a belt-driven 90° V-twin. Panigales would later tear those pages out of Ducati’s rulebook, but for a few fleeting years the 1198 brought together old and new worlds, like a T-rex fitted with fibre-optic Wi-fi (now that’s a megabite, etc).
There are shortcomings. The riding position is wrist-heavy, the tiny fuel tank needs refilling every hour or two and the biennial belt changes and 7500-mile valve clearance checks aren’t cheap. The 1198 doesn’t have the RC8’S compassionate ergonomics, compliant suspension or effortless any-speed steering but it doesn’t have its hollow exhaust note, bag-o-bolts gearbox or long face either.
“Traditional tech, futuristic firepower”