Top left: F1 750 motor with the Pantah logo clearly seen on the casing
Bottom left: Tony Rutter on the successful TT2 ‘works’ race bike
Top right: Tony Rutter on the Isle of Man with the TT Bottom right: 750 Montjuich
to the valve gear being controlled by the
drive belt which replaced the helical gear”.
The model was then returned to the original
600cc, which produced 52.8bhp at 8,500rpm.
The cubic capacity of the Pantah engine
grew from 498cc to 944cc.
My second Ducati was a 600 Pantah
and I remember it with much affection. A
beautifully balanced machine with almost
everything you would want from a roadgoing
sports bike.
LAST OF THE ‘REAL’ DUCATIS
The next stage came in 1985-87. The F1,
Montjuich, Laguna Seca, and Santamonica
had 750cc engines. These models, to the
true believer, represent the last of the real
Ducatis, the traditionally raw-boned sports
bike without an ounce of fat anywhere to
be seen. New emission and noise legislation
made the future manufacture of these
beauties impossible. The Laguna Seca that
I owned had ‘For racing only’ engraved
on the muffler. Presumably for American
consumption, where they were banned from
public road use. It really was beginning to
look like the end of an era.
Just as Paul Smart and Mike Hailwood
had raised the Ducati flag with sensational
victories in Italy and the Isle of Man in the
KIWI RIDER 75