FLICKING THE VEES TO DUCATI

In the mid-1990s there was only one option if you wanted to go exotic. While all of your mates were charging around on Japanese inline fours such as the FireBlade, GSX-R750, YZF and ZX-7R, if you wanted to create real envy you needed to pull up at the local bike meet on a Ducati. The 916 (or later the

996) were true pieces of Italian exotica, the same bike that ‘King’ Carl Fogarty was dominating WSB on and carrying such fabled items as Brembo brakes and Öhlins suspension. And if you had an SP, SPS or R version you were truly the talk of the town. However in 1998 one manufacturer changed all this.

Based just down the road from Ducati’s Bologna factory in Noale, Aprilia saw the success of Ducati in WSB and decided they wanted a piece of the action. Already more than an established