Ducati Bipantah
| Ducati Bipantah | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | Ducati |
| Production | prototype only |
| Combustion chamber | |
| Configuration | 90° V4 petrol engine |
| Displacement | 994 cc (60.7 cu in) |
| Cylinder bore | 78.0 mm (3.07 in) |
| Piston stroke | 52.0 mm (2.05 in) |
| Cylinder block alloy | Cast aluminium alloy |
| Cylinder head alloy | Cast aluminium alloy |
| Valvetrain | Desmodromic valve, 2-valves per cyl. |
| Combustion | |
| Fuel system | 4 Dell'Orto 40mm carburettors |
| Fuel type | Petrol/Gasoline |
| Oil system | wet sump |
| Cooling system | Air-Oil cooling |
| Output | |
| Power output | from 105 PS (77.2 kW; 103.6 bhp) @ 9,500 rpm to 132 PS (97 kW; 130 bhp) @ 11,000 rpm (according to engine tuning) |
| Dimensions | |
| Dry weight | 98 kg |
| Chronology | |
| Predecessor | Ducati Apollo |
| Successor | Ducati Desmosedici |
Ducati Bipantah is an internal combustion engine made by the Italian motocycle manufacturer Ducati in 1981. It was designed by Pierluigi Mengoli under the supervision of Fabio Taglioni. It has four cylinders and it is ideally formed by coupling two Ducati Pantah V2 engines. It remained a prototype although it had good results during dyno-tests. The project came to a halt in late 1982 when then-owners VM Motori decided not to build the bike the motor was intended for.
Ducati technical director Fabio Taglioni desired to launch a whole new family of Ducati motorbikes to provide the manufacturer a solid position on markets, with reasonable production figures. At the beginning of the eighties world motorcycle sales were decreasing and public was losing interest on Ducati V-twins models, so Taglioni thought that a brand new project would be the best choice, but it had to be different from Japanese models: first he conceived a 90° V-4, a wooden-metal model of which was realized in 1980, then he ordered to build another 90° V-4 engine, but with a "L" layout, which prototype was built in 1981, one year earlier than the launch of the then very innovative 750cc V-4 Honda VF.
BMW motorcycle division managers took the same technical/commercial direction with their new in-line four cylinder engine for K100. They wanted to produce higher range bikes, while the Japanese manufacturers were moving toward smaller 750 cc engines.VM Motori, which owned Ducati since 1978, had different plans: instead of investing money for a new range of bikes, they wanted to turn the Borgo Panigale factory into an engine supplier for other motorcycle manufacturers. In late 1982, the entire project was canceled.
Diesel engines designed by VM Motori and Pantah engines were produced The Ducati plant in those days, with the latter provided to Cagiva for their bigger bikes. The high cost of retooling the factory for a new engine and new bike, whose high price could lead to low sales, scared the VM Motori managers and the Castiglioni brothers at Cagiva. The Castiglionis bought Ducati in May 1985. Then the new owners decided to start new projects in order to compete with Japanese firms. After extensive technical discussions, they preferred Desmoquattro over Bipantah, because the first could be easily installed on the existing bikes.
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Wikipedia