Features 5 Aug 2014

Rewind: Superbike to supersport

How Ducati's old school 851 stacks up against the 899 Panigale of today.

Ducati’s new 899 marks the pinnacle of performance of their mid-capacity sportsbike a machine that is actually bigger in capacity than their first true superbike

The Battle of the Twins race at Daytona Speedway in 1986 was a big turning point for Ducati. The race was won by 1981 500cc GP Champion Marco Lucchinelli in his phasing out of motorcycle racing towards retiring from all forms of racing after retiring from GPs in 1985.

Having raced for Cagiva in 1985, he was a natural choice for a rider of experience to race an experimental 851cc TT1 racer in the BoTT race. Based on the belt-drive Pantah production engine, the TT1 racer was ineligible for many race classes around the world – being a true racer, not production racer – the development of the 851cc two-valve engine moved on to the 750 F1 production bike the following year –essentially a production version of the TT1 racer.

Source: Ducati.

Source: Ducati.

The TT Formula 1 world championship was the precursor to World Superbike. Most manufacturers fielded their top-of-the-line sportsbike in this championship to display their turnkey motorcycles against each other.

In 1987, while the 851cc two-valve per cylinder engine made its mark, development was impeded by the rev ceiling of the two-valve head. It couldn’t rev high enough to make the power to stay with the new breed of Japanese four-cylinder superbikes like the Suzuki GSX-R750, Yamaha FZ750 and Honda VFR750.

In short, the four-valve desmodromic head was born again (Ducati had earlier four-valve head designs, but none with the refinement and performance of this new head) on the 1988 851: the new benchmark in V-twin performance. It immediately replaced the 750F1 as the premium sportsbike in Ducati’s range.

Source: Ducati.

Source: Ducati.

The 851 took its first race win at Donnington in April of 1988 with Marco Lucchinelli. This was the very first round of the first year of the world Superbike Championship.

The 851 was essentially based around the TT1 racer, with the obvious addition of a radically new, four-valve engine. From that day on Ducati has risen to be the most successful brand in the championship that has grown in capacity limits to allow the 1200cc V-twin Panigale that races today. Evolved over the years from the 851 are the 888, 916, 996, 998, 1098, 1198, up until today’s 1199 Panigale.

The ancestral roots are very clear between the 851 and the Panigale – and it’s primarily that 90-degree longitudal V-twin with desmodromic four-valve heads. Sure, there are big differences in architecture, but the basic format remains unchanged and you can see that the first eight-valver looks like the current one. So essentially the premium sportsbike in Ducati’s range in the late 80s grew from 851cc to 1199cc today.

Source: Ducati.

Source: Ducati.

So considering today, Ducati’s modern day supersport is the size in capacity of last generation’s superbike, how do the two compare?

Due to old superbike rules, manufacturers had to have a production run of 150 road-going versions of the Superbike contending in WSBK. Armed with funding from a recent Cagiva purchase in the mid-80s, Ducati built two bikes: a production model and an up-spec one usually with a hot engine dripping in Brembo, Ohlin’s, and all other goodies. (The 851 Strada – base model – and 851 Tricolore – up-speccer – had a 30 horsepower difference for instance). Doing this made the development of the racer, within the WSBK rules, so much easier.

So for comparison sake, lets compare apples with fresher apples and look at the base model 1989 851 Strada and 2014 899 Panigale. It just goes to show how far things have really come…

1989 Ducati 851 Strada vs 2014 Ducati 899 Panigale
Capacity: 851cc | 898cc
Type: DOHC, 90-degree L-twin
Bore and stroke: 92 x 64mm | 100 x 57.2mm
Compression ratio: 11.1:1 | 12.5:1
Power: 76kW (109hp) | 109kW (148hp)
Torque: 72Nm @ 7250rpm | 99Nm @ 9000rpm
Weight: 199kg | 169kg
Power/weight: 381kW/tonne | 645kW/tonne
Price: $15,995 | $19,990
Average Aussie salary: $26,073 | $55,497

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