ONE IN 50
Ducati began its journey as a renowned high-performance motorcycle manufacturer on 12 September 1971, when the factory’s first multi-cylinder grand prix bike, resplendent in silver metalflake paint, rolled out onto the grid at Monza.
BY THE END OF 1971 DUCATI’S 500 ENGINE WAS MAKING 69HP AT 12,000RPM
The occasion was the Italian 500cc Grand Prix, climax of the world championship season, played out in front of a vast crowd of excited Italian fans. For the first time a big Ducati was taking on the might of MV Agusta, the aristocratic marque that had won every premier-class title since 1958.
Until 1971, Ducati had exclusively raced and manufactured single-cylinder motorcycles of 125, 250, 350 and 450cc capacities. No wonder the company had fallen on hard times, because the age of the superbike had arrived – the motorcycling world was in love with machines like Honda’s CB750, Kawasaki’s Z1 and Triumph’s Trident. Indeed Ducati might have disappeared forever if the Italian government hadn’t invested a ton of money in the summer of 1969 and placed the factory under direct state control.
The people we must thank for making Ducati what it is today are the bosses appointed by the government during that crisis: director Arnaldo Milvio and general manager Fredmano
