Evoluzione

The spectacular Ducati MH900e retro sport motorcycle was made by Ducati in 2001 and 2002, in a limited production run of just 2,000 units.

The motorcycle's concept by the Ducati designer Pierre Terblanche was a homage to the racing motorcycle Mike Hailwood rode to win the 1978 Isle of Man TT. The MH in MH900e stand for Hailwood's initials, and the e suffix is for evoluzione in Italian, evolution in English.

In September 1998, a sketch of the MH900e was presented to the general public at the Intermot Show in Munich. Ducati subsequently posted a questionnaire on their website to test the interest of the MH900e fans. After they were overwhelmed with positive reactions Ducati decided to produce a limited run of two thousand hand-built bikes.

Ducati made the surprising decision to sell the new bike directly to the consumer exclusively via the Internet. The Ducati website opened for orders on January 1st 2000 at 00:01am GMT at a price of € 15.000,- and the first 1.000 units were sold out in 31 minutes! The remaining 1.000 bikes were sold over the next few weeks. Individuals made purchases from 20 different countries. The estimated breakdown of the sales was 30% from Europe, 30% from the US and 39% from Japan.

In 2001 Pauline Hailwood, Mike Hailwood's widowed wife, sued Ducati for using her late husband's name in connection with Ducati's MH900e. Mike Hailwood never rode the MH900e and Ducati defended that the motorcycle was "inspired by the Ducati motorcycle that Mike Hailwood rode at the Isle of Man TT race in 1978". The case was settled with a retroactive license.

Photo: Paul Barshon

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