1996 ducati 955

Year: 1996

Make: Ducati

Model: 916SPa Corsa 955

Engine Capacity: 955cc

KMS: 4882 km

Rego: Not Registered

Sports bikes are like fresh bread in the morning. Crunchy ciabatta can boost Your appetite and jumpstart the day, but in the evening it becomes just a hard piece of dough. A machine that is offering top performance when it’s released – turns heads of all petrolheads and makes the heart pump faster, becomes yesterday’s news when the next generation comes. And it usually happens fast. It’s how it works with performance bikes. They don’t stand the test of time well, often disappearing in depths of history. But there is one model, that despite its premiere that took place 23 years ago, still can raise the blood pressure of many motorcycle enthusiasts.

The official prototype was presented in 1993, and production was planned for 1994. The test riders and press were full of admiration for the performance and the looks. They were critical though accusing 916 of being too radical that it was mainly a racer, stripped of road capabilities. Despite that WSBK was very favorable for Italians, the one point was very clear. Competition bikes were obliged to have the same suspension elements that its road equivalents. And putting crazy expensive components to these bikes would make their price even more out of reach. They decided to do the 200 pieces a year, that would be their limited series of a top model. Keeping the regular version more down to earth (with handling, compromises… and lower price). With time most of the components were moved to the regular version.

All these mods resulted in raising the horsepower to 126 in the first release and 131 later on. Just the numbers were impressive, but again – made the SP version unrideable on the roads – since until reaching 5000 rpm the numbers were lower than the Strada. SP was performing only after reaching 7000 rpm.

In 1995 SP2 version was introduced (since then SP was called SP1). Ducati decided to save some money and stopped using carbon fibre in few places. Following year, in 1996 SP3 was released… but these are not the machines that are the most interesting. As about that year came the moment when Ducati decided to compete in the USA. Well, the move was not completely a free will, since occasionally unwise decisions and bad management forced Cagiva group to sell Ducati to American investment fund Texas Pacific Group in September 1996. So obviously Ducati presence was needed in the USA. And to do that – they were required to create yet another road legal version.

Only 54 were ever produced. The main difference against the European version was increasing the engine displacement to 955 ccs. The unit generated 122 bhp and 74 Nm of torque. The difference doesn’t seem much, but the torque chart looked significantly better.

These were brought to the US with MSO’s that noted they were for race purposes only, like they did with the early SPS’s. Ferracci couldn’t sell 50+ of them so they took orders from other dealers as well. The AMA homologation rules required the bikes to be in the US for a specific amount of time, and once that time lapsed the bikes that were unspoken for shipped back out of the US and were sold in other regions where they had pending orders. There were only about a dozen that got spoken for by dealers in the US. Per an article in Fast Bikes magazine back in October 1996, there were 20 of them that left the US and were imported “new” via HT Automotive who had pending orders for all that they could get their hands on. So even though this was an “SP America” meant to homologate the engine in the US, only a small portion of the bikes got sold here in the US new.

The new version didn’t comply with the homologation rules on European markets. But Italians… as always, found a way. They shipped the SPS’s to the states, registered them over there, and imported them back, as second-hand motorcycles to local European customers. This procedure somehow didn’t violate the WSBK regulations!

No one knows how many of the 54 are still around and where they are located. Rumor has it around 20 of them are no longer with us. Owners who do have them keep them hidden away and its so rare to see one even on youtube never less for sale. This beauty runs smoothly and just had new tyres installed. She sounds as good as the day she was first turned over due to most recent full service. She is currently not registered in NSW but is blue slip ready.