CLASSICS
WORDS AND PHOTOS:
Rhys Jones
LAST OF THE RAW-BONE
STREET RACING DUCATIS
quote from the American magazine
Cycle World is an apt description of
one of the most significant group of motor-
cycles that ever emerged from the Ducati
factory. “Ducati must have known that the
line was about to be drawn in the histo-
ry books, and the people there must have
wanted to leave the last entry. Because the
F1 is everything an Italian sportsbike is ex-
pected to be and so seldom is”. I have written
about the F1 and Laguna Seca before, mainly
because I owned both models and have a
special adoration for them. Those two, how-
ever, are only part of the story.
The Montjuich, Santamonica, and F3 are
all part of the family. I also owned a Pantah,
which is where the belt driven engine in the
F1 family originated.
The last racing success for the much loved
bevel-drive Ducatis was in 1980. Following
750 F1:
beginning of the F1 dynasty
this the factory realised the time had come
for a radical change in engine design. The
result was the Pantah, and when a Pantah-
engined Ducati won the 1981 Formula 2
race at the Isle of Man TT, the fate of the
bevel-drive Dukes was sealed. Ducati design
supremo Fabio Taglioni began work on a
new trellis frame. Tony Rutter subsequently
won the 1981, 82, 83 and 84 Formula 2 World
Championship on the new 600cc belt-driven
machine.
Away from the racetrack, restrictions on
road going machines were becoming stricter.
So much so the Ducati F1 was virtually
outlawed on public roads in America. There
was no trace of filtration, or emissions
control, and the rowdy exhaust note was
unacceptable to US authorities. and clearly
marked ‘for racing only’. The specials also
came with slick race tyres.
750 F1:
engine and frame detail