Ducati Desmoquattro engine

The Ducati Desmoquattro are water-cooled, four-valve engines from Ducati. They have been produced since 1985 in capacities from 748 to 1,198 cc (45.6 to 73.1 cu in).

Castiglioni brothers from Cagiva bought Ducati in May 1985 and decided to start new investments in order to compete with Japanese firms. To do this they needed a new powerful engine, so they had a look into different proposals from technical department. The two best solutions were the Bipantah, a stillborn 994 cc air-cooled V4 and the Desmoquattro, a liquid-cooled, multi-valve, fuel-injected evolution of 750 cc V-twin. After extensive technical discussions, they preferred Desmoquattro over Bipantah, because the first could be easily installed inside the cradle of the existing models.

The water-cooled Ducati Desmoquattro engine that has dominated World Superbike racing was introduced in 1986 with the Ducati 748 IE racer ridden by Virginio Ferrari, Juan Garriga and Marco Lucchinelli at 1986 Bol d'Or and then transferred to series production in 1987 in Ducati 851 form, and despite subtle changes and increases in capacity, from 851, to 888, 916, and then 996 cc, remains true to the 851 motor designed by Massimo Bordi. That 851 was the first successful adaptation of Ducati’s desmodromic valve actuation to a four valves per cylinder engine, and began production with a 40-degree included valve angle. This was also the introduction of liquid cooling and computerised fuel injection to the V-twin range.

Fabio Taglioni, the designer of earlier Ducati v-twins, had experimented with four-valve heads, but stuck to his 80-degree included valve angle, not realizing that a much lower included valve angle was needed for the benefits of the layout to become apparent.

In 1991 Ducati increased the capacity of the 851 to 888 cc, creating the Ducati 888

In 1994, the company introduced the Ducati 916 model designed by Massimo Tamburini, with striking new bodywork that had aggressive lines, under-seat exhausts, and a single-sided swingarm.

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