Ducati Classic Cars for Sale

Famous for it's for its L-Twin engines, Audi-owned Ducati is a motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1926 and based out of Bologna Italy.

Ducati Through the Years

Ducati started off as a manufacturer of radio components founded by Antonio Cavalieri Ducati and his three sons. In 1935, the company built the Borgo Panigale factory. The brand’s first attempt at a bike model was the 1950 Cucciolo, a standard bicycle fitted with a stand-alone motor. From the Cucciolo, the manufacturer moved on to the scooter, with its Cruiser debuting at the Milan show in 1952. In 1953 the company divided into Ducati Elettronica for the electronic products and Ducati Meccanica SpA, handling the bike production. In 1960, the Italian manufacturer made the Mach 1, the fastest 250cc bike at the time. The company began using its patented desmodromic valve design on bikes in the 1970s. Cagiva bought Ducati in 1985 with intentions of changing the brand name but ended up keeping it. Texas Pacific Group then bought the brand in 1996, and in 1999 TPG issued an IPO while renaming the brand Ducati Motor Holding SpA. The Italian firm Investindustrial Holdings acquired the company in late 2005. In 2012, Audi, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, expressed interest in the motorcycle maker and bought it under its Lamborghini S.p.A subsidiary.

The Ducati Classics

The desmodromic valve system has allowed the manufacturer to produce some of the fastest bikes in the world. Current Ducati engines are all iterations of the Pantah, which was introduced in 1979 and got upgrades in the Supersport Series in the 1990s. Between 1950 and 1973, the manufacturer made its single cylinder motorcycles, including the 98 cc Gran Sport, 125 Desmo Ducati, Diana (Daytona in the UK), Scrambler Series, Apollo and Diana Mark 3 Super Sport. In 1973 the manufacturer made the Ducati 750 SuperSport, and in 1975 created the 860 GT. In 1985 the bike maker used the Desmoquattro, a multi-valve liquid-cooled engine, in the 999, 996, 916 and 851. The Ducati Monster, introduced in 1993 presently makes up half of the company's sales worldwide.

Ducati on the Track

Fabio Taglioni is the engineer who helped Ducati enter and succeed in its racing endeavours. He founded 100 Gran Sport, Ducati’s racing program, and built the infamous desmodromic valve system. Ducati won the Moto GP Season 2007 with the Desmosedici GP7 raced by Casey Stoner. The Ducati Marlboro Team raced the 2017 season with Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo. The company has dominated the Superbike World Championship, collecting a total of 318 wins as of 2015, the only manufacturer to achieve that. The 748 won the Supersport World Championship in 1997 with Paolo Casoli. Ducati has participated in the British Superbike Championship since 1988 and its riders have won nine times.