Improving on excellence
There have been several landmark models in Ducati’s often roller-coaster rise from manufacturing two-speed 50cc pull-rod motors that could be clipped on to bicycle frames to alleviate the lack of personal transportation in war-torn, post Second World War Italy, to becoming the German-owned powerhouse it is today, winner of copious racing world titles.
One of those staging posts along the way was the 1964 creation, by Ducati engineering guru Fabio Taglioni, of the company’s first customer road bike capable of breaking the 100mph barrier – the legendary 250cc Mach 1. Just 838 examples of this nowadays much prized ton-up model were constructed in the company’s Borgo Panigale factory in Bologna in 1964-66, fitted with the ultimate evolution of its first-generation, air-cooled, narrow-crankcase unit-construction SOHC valve-spring motor, with its cylinder inclined forward by 10 degrees and bevel-shaft camdrive producing a claimed 27.6bhp at 8500rpm, and weighing 116kg dry.
Among the Ducati Mach 1’s many accomplishments was delivering the Italian manufacturer its two first-ever race victories in the Isle of Man TT. First came Mike Rogers’ win in the 1969 250cc Production TT on a Mach 1 Ducati, averaging 88.79mph for the three-lap 113.20-mile race to defeat the horde of Suzuki and Bultaco two-strokes. The following year, it was Chas Mortimer’s turn to win on his Ducati, in doing so scoring the first of what would be a total of eight personal TT victories.
These successes, plus others at National and Club level, coupled with the model’s inherent good looks provided by Ducati’s in-house stylist Renzo Neri, helped make the Mach 1 the first high-performance 250cc Italian street single to be widely coveted by customers around the globe. Well, everywhere except the USA, that is, since Ducati’s Berliner Corp American importers declined to import it on the grounds they’d already had the Mark 3 250cc single in their catalogue since 1963, a racer with lights which Ducati had been talked into making especially for them –
