Ducati, Fabio Taglioni, the inventor of the Desmo engine, died 20 years ago

Among the characters who have left an indelible trace in motorcycling for almost half a century, from the postwar period to the end of the last century, there is the extraordinary engineer engineer Fabio Taglioni, who died twenty years ago at the age of 81, on 18 July 2001. Taglioni , defined as “The Lughese creator of myths”, from 1956 he had the prancing horse that the hero of the Great War Francesco Baracca had drawn on his plane, on the racing Ducati tanks, as Enzo Ferrari had already done on his red racing cars. Di Taglioni remembers not only his deep passion for engines and racing and his innovative genius for projects and technical achievements that have made the history of motorcycles and motorcycling but also his humanity and simplicity, his way of dealing as equals, speaking little and always listening to each interlocutor with keen interest. Taglioni gave the team the credit for the successes of his bikes by taking all responsibility and all blame for anything that did not go to the factory and on the circuits.

the “father” of Ducati

—

Let’s say right away that today’s Ducati, its strong and qualified presence in racing and on the international markets, owes a lot to Fabio Taglioni. When in mid-1954 the young engineer was called to Borgo Panigale after his happy experience at Mondial, he was welcomed by the then general manager of the Borgo Panigale company, Dr. Montano: “Taglioni, I know your talent, I need you. If he makes me a 100 cc motorcycle to win the Giro d’Italia, Ducati will remain open, because I only have a month’s salary for the workers, otherwise they will close and everyone will be at home ”. Taglioni accepts the challenge by inventing the 100 Gran Sport, the motorcycle-masterpiece that has gone down in history as “Marianna”, also dominating the 125 version of the Gran Fondo races such as the Motogiro of 1956 and 1957 and the Milan-Taranto of 1955 and 1956. In 1956 it was born the three-shaft Desmo 125 destined for the Grand Prix, preceded by the twin-shaft with springs and both derived from the Marianna, which will compete until 1959, also driven by the “promise” Mike Hailwood, a bike with which the future 9-time world champion will win his first GP, in Ulster, by burning Gary Hocking and Ernst Degner’s 2-stroke rotary disc MZs.

the record ducats

—

At the world championship debut on 14 September 1958 in Monza the Ducati 125 had dominated by conquering the first five places with Bruno Spaggiari, Alberto Gandossi, Francesco Villa, Dave Chandwick, Luigi Taveri. In those days, particularly in that magical 1958 season, Taglioni was not “only” the engineer, designer and field commander of the Borgo Panigale racing team, but he was the “primus inter pares” appreciated, recognized and respected by all the mechanics and above all from all the riders, starting with the young Mike Hailwood and the other rising star, the Modenese Gianni Degli Antoni, triumphant at the Swedish GP on 15 July 1956 on the Hedemora circuit, who died in a test in Monza on 7 August in 1956, after a crash at the Lesmo curve. The new racing cars will follow: the 175 twin-shaft and 125 twin-cylinder three-shaft; from these will derive the 250 and 350 GPs made expressly for Hailwood.

cuts, not just racing

—

The 175, 100 and 125 were then created for series production, then the 200 series and finally the 250/350/450 family and then that of the series-produced single-shaft Desmo. Today Ducati means MotoGP and Superbike but the Borgo Panigale manufacturer was, as mentioned above, a great protagonist, especially in the decade 1950-1960, in the legendary cross-country races (Milan-Taranto 1,400 km in a single stage and Giro d’Italia over 3,000 km in stages) and in those reserved for “juniors” and “cadets” in classes 100, 125, 175: events and competitions of great competitive, technical and social value with an extraordinary participation of motorcycles, riders and the public. From the basis of those Ducati “sport” motorcycles derived the normal road bikes and then the Grand Prix racing cars with desmodromic distribution, still the pride of Borgo Panigale technology.

the “marianna” of taglioni

—

The first real Ducati racing bike is the 100 cc single-shaft from 1955 prepared for the Motogiro, the Milano Taranto, the junior and cadet championships. That 100 cc motorcycle will go down in history – as mentioned – with the name of “Marianna” and in that period it will win everything, everywhere, going from the initial 9 HP to 9000 rpm and 130 Km / h of speed up (with the twin-shaft version) to 16 hp at 11,500 rpm over 160 km / h. In the 1955 Motogiro Ducati crashes: the first ten places in the 125 are occupied by the riders riding the “Marianna”. The following year, Maoggi and Marenghi on the small 125cc Bolognese are first and second overall in the Giro d’Italia, beating even the 250 and 500 cc bikes. In the same year, engineer Taglioni perfected his desmodromic valve return system (in summary: without the constraint of the springs, higher rpm and therefore higher speeds were reached) – the Desmo will become the symbol of all Ducati engines – allowing the Bolognese company to participate also in the 125 World Championship with the single-cylinder 4-stroke engine with over 17 HP at 12,500 rpm on 180 Km / h with the first victory at the Swedish GP where Alberto Gandossi beats the squadrons of MV Agusta, Gilera, Mondial, MZ. The new Ducati 125 desmo wins six of the ten world races in 1958. The bike is developed and in 1958-59 is the best 125 Grand Prix in the world: almost 20 HP at 13,000 rpm and 180 km / h with partial fairing. Triumphs in the seniores tricolor, second, third and fourth at the TT, second and fourth at Assen, triumphs in Spa with Gandossi at an average of 159.422 km / h, with an encore in Sweden (after the bad luck at the Nurburgring), and the final three of a kind at Monza with five Ducatis in the first five places with Bruno Spaggiari in front of everyone. “The engine – remembers the Reggiano Spaggiari – pulled like nothing was up to 14,000, 15,000 rpm and beyond, a missile”.

his inventions

—

In those years Taglioni also ventured into 250 with the desmodromic twin-cylinder Ducati (38 HP, 11,500 rpm, over 220 Km / h) where in 1960 he still obtained world championship placements with Hailwood and with Alberto Pagani he laps in Monza at over 175 Km / h average. The single-cylinder 125 desmo remains the Ducati workhorse of that era, then abandoned because from 1959-60 in Borgo Panigale there was the official disengagement from competitions. For more than forty years the human and professional life of Fabio Taglioni has crossed with the technical, competitive and market history of Ducati.

who was taglioni

—

Taglioni was born on 10 September 1920 in a hamlet of Lugo di Romagna (Ravenna), he loved the countryside but since he was a child he locked himself up in the workshop of a family friend working on machine tools, bicycles and motors of all kinds. He attends the Master’s, where he meets his future wife Norina; subsequently he enrolled at the Liceo Scientifico of Ravenna. Then the entrance to the University of Bologna and in 1940 the stop for war events. He serves as Technical Director of a car and motorcycle maintenance workshop. In Sicily he is seriously injured in the left leg which will be offended. In 1942 he married. In 1949 Taglioni obtained an assignment at the Alberghetti Technical Institute of Imola, where he teaches Mechanics and Design, and decides to create with his students his own engine that will see the light in 1952. It is a single-cylinder 75 cc with distribution to rods and rockers then redesigned as double shaft and finally simplified by creating a single shaft with gear cascade control. He continued his university studies and graduated in 1948 with a thesis on a “500 cc 4-cylinder racing engine for cars”. He immediately proposes himself to the main motorcycle manufacturers and refuses an offer from Benelli because he does not intend to move. In 1952 he was hired as technical manager of the racing department by Count Boselli at Mondial who also allowed him to work for Ceccato on the 75 Sport project. In 1953 Mondial took part in the Motogiro with the single-shaft 125 under the leadership of Taglioni.

the quarrel with the world

—

Mondial flies in racing and on the markets but a diplomatic incident blows up the Taglioni-Mondial partnership. Taglioni was not invited to the celebration dinner for the victory of the Motogiro: so on 1 May 1954 the engineer from Lughese joined Ducati! Although its name is linked to the Marianna, therefore to the Desmo and the L-twin cylinders, Taglioni also designed 4-cylinder engines as proof of his eclecticism: the Apollo 1260 cc in 1963, the 125 GP in 1965, the 1000 in L in the 1974 and the Bipantah 1000 of 1981, as well as some mid-displacement 500/700 twin-cylinder engines with rods and rockers from 1965 and twin-cam chain in 1967. At the beginning of the 1960s he also built the prototype of an 8-cylinder V for F1 for account of the Osca. In 1970 he made the 90 ° V-twin 750, called L-shaped due to its arrangement in the frame, preceded by a 500 GP and which will see its maximum expression in the Mhr 1000. The validity of the project will find its confirmation in the overwhelming success at the Imola 200 mile in 1972 (Smart sprinting over Spaggiari) and Hailwood’s triumph at the TT in 1978. In 1977, after stubbornly refusing to work on the 350 / parallel twin-cylinder engines 500 that should have replaced the single-cylinder, creates the Pantah 500 with belt-driven timing. With these he will win 4 TT2 World Championships. Even as a retiree, Taglioni will maintain a consultancy relationship with Ducati, the manufacturer of his heart for which he had said no to Benelli, Ford, MV Agusta, Norton and Piaggio in previous years. Ferrari also wanted Taglioni at his court in Maranello but it all ended in tortellini and lambrusco. Motorcycling, motorsport everything, remembers with affection and gratitude Taglioni, a great engineer, a respectable person.