Sak Art Ducati Hypermono

A few months ago the designer's at Italy's Sak Art released conceptual drawings for a modern interpretation of the wonderful Ducati Supermono of the 1990s'.

This design makes intelligent use of the new Ducati Monster's frame and swingarm. Being a 'hyper' sports model it deserves top-rate equipment. This is provided via a carbon fiber tank and bodywork, Ohlins suspension, Brembo brakes with 305mm rotors and 17" Marchesini wheels.

The engine is configured in the same way as the original Supermono. That is, utilizing an existing Ducati Superbike engine, but instead of the vertical cylinder a counterweight is attached to the vertical con-rod. This provides the natural vibration damping of a 90° v-twin allowing the engine to achieve much higher RPM than possible from a normal single. It also has the advantage of creating an all new engine configuration while reusing most of the existing Superbike engine parts. This was the stroke of brilliance afforded to the original Supermono by, then Ducati chief engineer, Massimo Bordi.

Sak Art produced a series of playfully styled variations of the supermono theme in homage to various Ducati race bikes of the past.

Orange/Black reflects some vintage models of the 70s including the 350 mono.

The version presented above is devoted to a Ducati 175 F3 that won a host races between the '50s and '60s, and honors Francesco Villa who rode to victory in Monza ('58-'59-'60) in this 175 category. His number (16) was the number used in Villa's first victory in 1958.

Finally, the "Desmo Racing" version is a tribute to the 450 Desmo single "king of the mountain" that dominated championships in the early 70s.

Sak Art's ernest hope in producing this concept was to spark 'grass roots' interest in their lovely design in the hopes that someone at Ducati is taking notice and maybee, just maybee put into production the bike they could have given us twenty years ago.

To this day, the only serious supermono sports bike in production is the CR&S VUN. In the mean time, Ducati seem much more interested in entering the market already defined by the CR&S DUU (as witnessed by recent spy shots).

 

Mimicry is flattery I guess...