Author: Alan Cathcart
How do you replace a legend? For Ducati, the Italian motorcycle manufacturer worshiped by racers and riders all over the world, the answer was to start from scratch. When the company decided to produce a successor to its immensely popular 916/996/998 series, it allowed designer Pierre Terblanche to create a completely new bike built from the inside out. This approach resulted in a radically styled motorcycle whose improved ergonomics offer greater comfort and control, with more agile handling at all speeds.
Ducati also broke with tradition by allowing two of the worlds top motorcycling writers, Alan Cathcart and Marc Cook, to document the birth of the 999-from the earliest design ideas through final production. In an industry where product plans and manufacturing techniques are usually guarded like state secrets, Cathcart and Cook were given complete access to the designers, engineers, and technicians who worked to make the 999 a superbike sensation.
Since its launch in 2002, the 999 has been as successful in magazine comparison tests as it has in world superbike competition. That much is common knowledge, but this book goes beyond superficial road tests to explain the unique way in which all new Ducati motorcycles are designed, developed, and manufactured. In-depth interviews with Terblanche and each of the key Ducati project leaders describe the extraordinarily sophisticated and complex process of bringing out a new model. Previously unpublished design renderings and CAD drawings reveal styling directions and technologies that were explored but not adopted. The book also features hundreds of photographs that show everything from the off-limits prototype development areas to the 999 assembly line. Think of this as the ultimate factory tour.
Ducati 999: Birth of a Legend will take you deep into the heart and soul of this revolutionary motorcycle and the remarkable company that created it.
Format: Hardbound
Pages: 192
Length: 9.25w x 11.25h
ISBN-13: 9781893618275
ISBN: 1893618277
Catalog ID: 137193C