The Ducati 916 is an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 sports motorcycle

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

 manufactured by Ducati from 1994 to 1998. In contrast to Japanese inline four-cylinder

Straight-4

The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....

 competitors of the time, its V-twin

V-twin

A V-twin engine is a two-cylinder internal combustion engine where the cylinders are arranged in a V configuration.- Crankshaft configuration :Most V-twin engines have a single crankpin, which is shared by both connecting rods...

 engine produced less outright power, but a more even torque spread. The 916 model was replaced by the 996

Ducati 996

The Ducati 996 is an Italian street motorcycle manufactured by Ducati from 1999 to 2002. It was based upon the earlier 916.-Model history:...

 model in 1999.
The first development of the 916 model family can be traced back to the development of the four-valve Ducati engine, the Desmoquattro, through the development and racing of the earlier Pantah

Ducati Pantah

The Pantah was the first of the belt-driven camshaft Ducati motors, the first generation of the current Ducati V twins. First shown December 1979, it came on the market as the 1980 500SL and the last of the line 650SL was sold in 1986...

 models, to the road-going 851

Ducati 851

The Ducati 851 was a Ducati motorcycle, with liquid cooling and four valve heads, released to the public in 1987. Development had lagged with the continued use of two valve engines, but new funds enabled a technological move forward Ducati needed at the time....

 and 888

Ducati 888

The Ducati 888 was a motorcycle manufactured by Ducati as an upgrade to the Ducati 851. The earlier 851 had introduced liquid cooling, computerized fuel injection and four-valve heads to the company's two cylinder motors. In 1991 Ducati increased the capacity of the 851 to 888 cc to create...

 models.

The chief designer of Ducati motorcycles since the 1970s was the late Fabio Taglioni

Fabio Taglioni

Fabio Taglioni was an Italian engineer.Born in Lugo di Romagna, he was chief designer and technical director of Ducati from 1954 until 1989. His desmodromic L-twin design is still used in all current Ducati motorcycle engines...

 (1920-2001).