What else can there be said about the Ducati 916, be it the standard production model or the unbeatable Wolrdchampionship winning Ducati Corse 916R Superbike?

To start with, this is one of the sexiest bike offcourse an italian motorbike speaks for itself. Think on the design of the Bennellis, Moto-Guzzi, Laverdas or MV-Agustas; the Desmo's bikes coming from Bologna are truly works of art in design, both exterior as motortechnical.

The term Desmo comes from the 'forced' lifting & closing system of the engine valves.
Which can be more precise at higher revolutions than a camdriven one… although the BIG Desmo's do not operate at high revolutions as oppossed to a japanese inline fours.
Also Ducati produces mostly V-twins or better, L-twins when seeing the degree of angle between the two cilinders.
And maybe the bikes from Bologna are not recognized only by their looks but also by that specific twin and low throaty sound enhanced by those Termignoni silencers.

The Beginning

I recently found out that the japanese firm Museum Collection has made a conversion-set to turn the production machine into the 'works' Ducati Corse version of 'King' Carl Fogarty or 'Foggy' as nicknamed by his numerous fans across the world of Superbike racing!

After surfing one day on the Net and typing Ducati 916 at the Google search engine, I saw a link of that excellent online modelshop, HobbyLinkJapan. I knew about the Museum-collection conversion-sets to turn a standard 916 into the Superbike racing version.

I choose to go for the 1995 livery since it has the No.#1 and 'Kremlyovskaya wodka' as a main sponsor and I have a Dutch motormagazine with an insight article with helpful detailphoto's on that specific model.

You can choose between the following conversion-sets:

Ducati 916 1994 Carl Fogarty	Ducati 916 1995 Carl Fogarty	Ducati 916 1996 Troy Corser	Ducati 916 1997 Carl Fogarty

Also more important for me, like the Scuderia Ferrari F1 cars; unlike recent years, Ducati Corse painted the Marchesini wheels in lovely Gold as opposed to the Black wheels later on used.

The Conversion-kit

The conversion-set consist of a full livery decal-sheet, a 'correct' Marchesini rear wheel and turned brass stanchions for the front upside forks (it also contains a nice decalsheet of Carbon weave).
You also have to use the Tamiya Yamaha YZR 500 GP bike front wheel and brake-discs!

The standard production wheels are of the three-spoke design as opposed to the 5 spoke Marchessini's!
Although I do not understand why Museum Collection also did not cast a front wheel, but in most countries you can order spare parts at your local Tamiya importer.

Building.

Since it is a conversion you have to remove / cut and scratch build some parts to distinguish the production bike to the Superbike racer.

So rearview-mirrors, turning lights, side standard, frontlight assembly all have to go…

And this is where a reference insight article comes useful!
As always I like to get to know the model which I am about to build as much as I can… by obtaining reference material from whatever medium. Magazines, Books, Internet photo's etc.

The turned brass stanchion legs depict the real-life Titanium-Nitride coated ones perfectly. Normally you would cover the kit originals with Bare Metal Foil 'chrome' or Chrome Silver paint and cover them with Clear Orange paint to obtain a similar look as the real-life TiNi (Titanium-Nitride) coated ones.

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