Ducati 999

We all love a fairy tale, so – in retrospect – is Ducati’s 999 still an ugly sister, or an ugly duckling about to become a beautiful swan?

- Bertie Simmonds

It was the law: Ducati built beautiful, gorgeous machines that could also do the job they were built for.

Think Ducati’s 888, or Monster range. Even the 900SS/750SS, etcetera, had an agricultural beauty to them, but then came Ducati’s 916. The most beautiful bike ever built... arguably.

It’s hard to fathom how the bosses at Ducati could better the first 916, but better they did with the bloodline housed in largely the same chassis and clothing, the 996 and 998 models.

But whether it had a 916cc L-twin Desmo or a Testastretta 998cc motor, it still looked like the original bike. And that was no bad thing.

To design the ultimate successor to Massimo Tamburini’s 916 was going to be nigh on impossible, but it had to be done and the man who was given this task for 2003 was Pierre Terblanche.