Duke Devastator!

Dear CR

Lovely to read Sir Alan Cathcart’s words on Doug Polen’s Ducati 888 – I know people love the 916, but, in my opinion, pound for pound it’s a more beautiful machine than the 916 and almost as successful.

Also, I know that the Ducati Monster and 916 are the bikes credited with ‘saving’ Ducati financially, but I really think these liquid-cooled Desmos along with the aircooled SS series (400, 600, 750 and 900 from the late 1980s and early 1990s) were equally as beautiful and deserved some recognition.

As a passionate Ducati fan and Brit, it was great to see Carl Fogarty get on the 888 and do the business against the Japanese inline fours. These were great days… But for a scrapped final round (1993 I think) maybe Foggy would have taken that year’s World Superbike title?

Being of a certain age, I remember the likes of Virginio Ferrari winning the F1 title in (I think) 1987 and then these beautiful bikes being developed into seriously competitive World Superbike machines.

I was lucky enough to be in the pits one year and, if I recall, it was Doug Polen and Giancarlo Falappa riding and both were chatting to fans about the bike. It was great. The good old days!

Will Worsnick

The Editor says: “There is something agriculturally beautiful about the 888 Will – but what do you think of the 916’s successor, the 999? Next year will be 20 years since it won its first championship!”