Ducati 916SPa Corsa 955

The rarest SP of all is the 1996 SPA (Sport Production America, sometimes called the 955SP), built in a run of 54 examples to homologate a set of 96mm pistons/barrels for use in AMA Superbike. Some sources quote a modified crankshaft and crankcases as well, but details are scarce. With the 2mm overbore capacity was 955cc, and engine numbers are modified to suit – a true SPA will have a ZDM955 engine code, an important thing to note because there are hundreds of “955s” that are simply 916s with aftermarket overbore kits. 50 were sold to the public, making it one of the rarest Ducatis of the 1990s. Aside from the pistons and barrels it is a standard SP3 with a decent power boost – Superbike magazine tested a genuine 1 of 50 SPA in 1996 and it made 122 hp and 74 lb-ft of torque on their dyno with a custom exhaust and a remap. 

Source Odd bike

Review

It's a sportbike fantasy guaranteed to excite even the most case-hardened performance junkie: Take what already is the most coveted sport motorcycle around today and hotrod il into a Superbike-spec, street-legal weapon; don't just ride it on the street but turn it loose on a racetrack to see how its lap times stack up against those of real Superbikes; and as icing on the cake, how about getting a world champion to hammer it around the track, maybe even one who had won his crown on the very same brand of motorcycle?

That's not a fantasy; that's a \ i\ id imagination gone berserk.

But maybe not. Just such a motorcycle would seem to exist in Event Technology's Ducati 955, a romping, stomping, 124-horsepower, carbon-fibered Superbike for the street. And the ideal rider exists, as well, in two-time World Superbike champion Doug Polen.

So, we did the obvious: We put the two together, then stood back and watched the fireworks. The results were not only good, they far exceeded even our warped fantasies.

Polen is the perfect choice for testing the mettle of a Ducati with such lofty aspirations, having won both of his WSB titles ('91 and '92) and an AMA Superbike championship ('93) on booming Italian V-Twins. He's also raced a semi-factory 955 Superbike this season and is slated to contest the Austrian and U.S. rounds of the WSB series on a works 955 prepared by Germany's DNL Ducati Racing. Who better, then, to evaluate our fantasy bike?

That machine, the 397-pound Event Technology 955, abounds with carbon fiber, titanium and race-spec engine components. "The idea was to build the ultimate streetbike, more ultimate than what was already available," says Event Technology's Igor Gorodinsky (35 Coles Orchard Rd., Duxbury, MA 02332; 617/585-1916). "We tried to use all of the available technology and build a souped-up streetbike, sort of a hybrid between the street and track."

The first step was to jettison the stock motor in favor of a 955cc unit built by England's JH Performance. "It's built exactly to '95 Ducati Corsa spec," says Gorodinsky. "That's not to say that everybody runs that spec, but when Ducati makes its 955 Corsas for racing, the motors that go into those bikes have identical specs, in terms of compression, displacement, valve sizes and everything else. We don't have the factory crankshaft because we feel the one that we are using is better.

"We went for all of the weight savings we could possibly get. We started with billet-aluminum Omega pistons, which are the same pistons Ducati uses in its Superbikes. We used Pank l titanium rods, and the crank shaft was machined out of billet steel-which makes it both lighter and stronger-then polished. The valves are '95 race spec, 37mm intake, 31mm exhaust. We also replaced the original single-injector fuel injection with a dual-nozzle set-up, which we also sourced from Ducati. The stock wiring harness supports dual injectors, so we just had to install new throttle bodies and the new motor."

Chassis modifications were limited to an Öhlins steering damper and shock, five-spoke Marchesini wheels, adjustable-height rearsets, a quick-change rear-sprocket assembly, an AP Lockheed master cylinder, braided-steel brake lines and cast-iron Brembo rotors. The tube frame, single-sided swingarm and fully adjustable Showa fork are standard-issue.

"We felt that the chassis works fairly well, especially for the street," says Gorodinsky. "We do have Öhlins forks available to us, but we felt that the difference on the street would be hard to justify."

Ridden on the street, the Event Tech 955 is a qualified success. The engine has an incredibly broad spread of power punctuated by impressive hits at 8000 and 10,000 rpm. The cause of these power surges, as revealed on the dyno, were three significant dips in the torque curve: one at 5000 rpm, another at 7000 and the third at 9500. Fortunately, the bike's ridability isn't adversely affected. This roller-coaster power curve may be accentuated by the 916's "under-and-over" exhaust-pipe routing. On a stacker, the pipes' curves don't seem to detract from linear power delivery, but they tend to cause a few holes in the powerband on race-modified engines.

Also, the 955's works close-ratio gearbox, which is designed for roadracing, can be a nightmare around town. At the dragstrip, the ultra-tall first gear made quick launches an impossibility; the bike's best quarter-mile was a "disappointing" 10.83-second/136-mph pass. The 955's top-gear roll-ons, however, were quite good; only 3.2 seconds were needed to dash from 40 to 60 mph, and 3.7 seconds from 60 to 80 mph. Top speed, at 171 mph, is admirable but about 10 or 15 mph short of what a real Superbike can attain.

As one might expect, comfort is at a minimum. The seat is nothing more than a thin, roughly hewn strip of foam affixed to the carbon-fiber tailsection, and the JH Performance rearsets are, well, rearset. Still, the bike is outstanding on a twisty road, particularly if there's room for it to stretch its legs. The engine makes respectable power, spikes and dips notwithstanding, and the Öhlins shock and updated brakes are notable improvements over stock. Induction noise is absolutely deafening,

Source Cycle World 1997