Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

First Person/Opinion

By Bob Holcomb

Quick report from the Pierre Terblanche lecture Friday, November 19 at the Larz Anderson Transportation Museum in Boston. First, the guy is a very tall South African! I always imagined he was a very short Italian.

It was a packed house. Many unhappy people were turned away at the door after the building reached capacity. The crowd was an unusual mix of tweedy gray-beards, elegant women, designer types and road race people. The latter cleaned up pretty good! Among the crowd, cocktail talk ranged from Terblanche styling cues to new club race packages planned for 2005.

Pierre started us out with a glimpse of the Ducati beginnings and progressed through the challenges and solutions in the design of the 851, Supermono, 916, current 900SS, MHe, 999, Multistrada and finally the ‘Classic’ series yet to enter production. Many rare sketches were screened as he took us through each design project. He emphasized that advancing design tools made their mark in each new challenge. These were drawn from the likes of VW, Porsche and even Toyota. Yet, capital, time and component constraints shaped every project as we would guess with a small company like Ducati.

Interestingly, Terblanche repeatedly pointed out that the motorcycle basically designed itself. He clarified his remarks by suggesting dimensions of various peformance components drove the ultimate shape and proportions of the finished product. He screened and pointed out a few styling achievements he dreamed up that were dropped in the course of producing an effective machine. He also pointed out a few important structural components he insisted on developing in order to produce the most appealing overall design. Some of these he apparently did himself in the wee hours when engineers refused to try. My take is that the concept of ‘form following function’ is central to Ducati style. Yet at Ducati, it is important that the function part be done in an artful way.

Many fine pieces were displayed at the event, including a very special show-quality Supermono from Supermoto Italia. No bombshells were offered, but Pierre did tell me he was trying to get his people to let him design a killer Dual Sport.

The Terblanche lecture was sponsored by Eastern Cycle Ducati of Massachusetts, with support from BCM Ducati in New Hampshire and Supermoto Italia of New York. U.S. Desmo organized and ran the event.