THE EVOLUZIONE

There are a number of important bikes in Ducati’s history, the first 100mph 250 being one of them …

WORDS ALAN CATHCART

"… THE MACH 1 THE FIRST HIGH PERFORMANCE 250CC ITALIAN STREET SINGLE TO BE WIDELY COVETED …" WAY BACK in 1964 Ducati engineering guru Fabio Taglioni designed the company’s first customer road bike capable of breaking the 100 mph 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, weighing 116kg dry and fitted with the ultimate evolution of its first-generation air-cooled narrow-crankcase unit-construction SOHC valve-spring motor, with bevel-shaft camdrive producing a claimed 27.6 bhp at 8500 rpm. 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…

You're reading a preview of

Retrobike (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 46

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.