Description
The Darmah was born to respond to the commercial failure of the 860 GT of 1974, heir to the 750 GT of 1971, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and that did not receive the success expected due to its square aesthetics and reliability problems. To design the new grand tourism of the House of Borgo Panigale it was called Leopoldo Tartarini, former Ducati pilot and patron of Italjet, who created a bike with a more pleasant and sporty style of the 860 GT, inspired by another Ducati designed by him, the Sport Desmo 350/ 500. The new model was presented in December 1976 at the Bologna Motor Show, and production began the following year. Compared to the 860 GT, the bike was different, not only for its aesthetics, but also for the use of instrumentation and electrical controls of Japanese construction, for the use (for the first time on a road bike) of magnesium alloy rims . Other novelties concern the frame, lowered and widened compared to the 860, and the mechanics, with the use of the thermal SS 900 with desmodromic distribution, but with smaller diameter intake ducts. In 1978 the Ducati realized a more sporty version of the Darmah, the SSD (Super Sport Desmo), produced until 1981 and that differs from the normal version (signed SD)
