The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Ducati Apollo V4

By

Ducati Apollo V4 engine

The Berliner brothers, who owned Berliner Motor Corporation and used to import Ducati into the U.S., among several other brands, in 1959 asked Ducati to build a motorcycle to compete with Harley Davidson for the police motorcycle business. After some discussion, Ducati finally agreed to the idea and a few years later produced the V4 powered Apollo. The engine displaced 1256cc and produced 100 horsepower, quite a bike in those days.

Unfortunately, the engine was more than tire technology of the time could handle and the Ducati test rider was the first of many to discover the fun of having the rear tire blow out at speed. Lowering the power output to 80 horsepower and finally 65 horsepower seemed to fix the problem but at those levels, the motorcycle didn’t have enough of an advantage over rivals, including BMW, to justify tooling and production, at least that’s what the finance people at Ducati said, so the project was shelved.

I came across this photo among the many Denny sent me from his trip to Italy, he took this one in the Ducati Museum. I wasn’t really familiar with the Apollo but this engine looked pretty cool so I had to find out what it was all about. Along with the Ducati inline 4 cylinder on display in the Morbidelli Museum, Ducati made more multi cylinder engines in past years than many are aware of. Interesting.

Thanks for the photo, Denny!

Link: Wikipedia
Related: Morbidelli Museum Photo Tour

Comments

  3. Never made much sense to me. If they eventually reduced power to 65 hp, didn’t they already have a 750 twin with that much that could be produced cheaper than a 4? Did the police have some sort of archaic requirement that the engine be “at least 1200cc” reflecting the current crop of 40 hp American bikes?

    -todd

  4. I once saw an industrial catalog that showed a ducati stationary engine, that looked just like a mark 3/mach 1, that could be used as an inboard boat
    motor, or hooked up to a generator etc. it may even have been a diesel. really neat. would have been cool having both a bike and boat ducati powered!

  6. The police requirement at the time said ‘V’ engine configuration and 5×16″ tires, which was a way of saying they only wanted Harleys. Berliner figured the Apollo was suitable for both the police market and the civilian one, but in the end tire technology – as mentioned above – was not up to the power, and in any case the thing would realistically have been too expensive even for law enforfement agencies.

    A complete example can be found at The Iwashita Collection, a great motorcycle museum in Yufuin (on Kyushu) in Japan.

  7. Great engine, ahead of it’s time. Certainly one could argue that it inspired H-D to attempt their own V4 years later. But the Apollo? Come on! What cowboy were they designing that for?? I know that was the established look for American bikes in the 1950’s, and I know that elusive Harley market is intoxicating, but seriously! Talk about a mis-matched engine and bike concept! At least Honda had the balls to try something different in America.

  8. The top cylinder headers look much better in the picture with just the engine; but the same headers muck-up the look when the engine is placed in a bike.

    Proof that the sum of the parts don’t always add up to a looker. (and conversely, individual parts that are designed with aesthetic restraint, can look stellar when combined with the whole)

  9. OK. Now stick two 1098 engines together, stick it in the Monster, and go eat a V-Max, B-King (are they fattening?) or anything else you crave.