All Ducati's Secrets - Revealed!
The Star Wars Project, and beyond...
Disclaimer: This is fiction, isn’t it. Not only that but I shamelessly ripped, twisted and adapted many of the ideas and information off other sources, so I cannot be held responsible..
One foggy day - Borgo Panigale, Bologna, Italy - November 2006
Filippo Preziosi is sitting in his wheelchair listening to a screaming noise coming through the thick glass of his office, - a desmo 800cc prototype engine is being tested in the Corse workshop. The telephone rings.
Preziosi: Hello, this is Filippo speaking... wait... hmmm, this sounds like 19,000 - 19,500....nice... and I'm not seeing any smoke... (smiles)
Livio Suppo shouts from the other end of the line: Ciao Filippo, can you hear me? This is Livio, Livio Suppo! I have bad news!
Preziosi: Ciao Livio… Wow, 19,750!!! ...... Uh?! Bad news?
Suppo: Yes, dammit, Melandri cannot join us next year, Gresini is holding him by the balls!
Preziosi: ......., what to do? we cannot call Bayliss back, can we? Or.. Gibernau?
Suppo: No way, we need Bayliss in WSB too badly... As for Jibber, when I mentioned him, Loris touched his balls!
Preziosi: Who then? Let me think... We could take Nakano, at least we increase sales in Japan...
Suppo: No no, we sell enough there already... Listen.. There is this guy... what's his name... the one who is really tough but looks deceptively sweet... engaged to a nice girl called Adriana...
Preziosi: Rocky Balboa...?! (giggles)
Suppo: No, c'mon, i mean the Australian boy who kept falling off Lucio's bike this year...
Preziosi: The one they call Rolling Stoner? Hmmmm, I see, he's fast if he can stay on the bike, I agree, but... You know we don't have much money and he's going to waste a lot of fairings, body parts, suspensions etc...
Suppo: Yes but we can have him for real cheap, so we can buy an extra stock of fairings and parts with the money we save. Then we can use him to develop... you know... (looks over his shoulder) the… the Star Wars project!!!
Preziosi: Star Wars... you mean our TC software project? Oh now I see, that would be smart… Loris always refuses to work at it with our programmers, he insists we cannot ask him to slam the throttle open when he's leaning 55° and hit the gravel, only to let them analyze the data, correct some code and try again...
Suppo: Yes I know, we can’t blame him. But Stoner is so used to crashing he won't even notice it.. and he does take any bike to the limit... and beyond... (grin)
Preziosi: Okeydokey man, sign him, I call a meeting with the software department immediately... Ah, remember to order at least 50 fairings with the number 27 to the bodyworks department... Ok ciao! (looks up)…Hmmm... listen to that, it must have hit 20,000! Eureka!!!
Suppo looks at the handset, smiles, and hangs up.
Three months have passed. Preziosi is sitting in his office, he picks up the phone and dials a series of digits.
Preziosi: Good afternoon. May I speak with Mr. Suppo please? What? he's having a massage? Call him! ... Yes, you can disturb Mr. Suppo, just call him, for god's sake! Thanks!
A few minutes later...
Suppo: Filippo? Is that you? ...No I was just having a little massage, you know, here in Malaysia it is so hot and humid...
Preziosi: Here it’s freezing, never mind…! So how is the Star Wars project doing?
Suppo: Very well! We didn't even have to use most of the fairings we brought here - actually, you know, the young man didn't crash, almost! He says… He says he LIKES the bike...!
Preziosi: Did he really? Nobody ever "liked" our bike...
Suppo: Yes, and the software has progressed immensely but I am afraid it will work for Casey only, probably not for Loris...
Preziosi: How come?
Suppo: The geeks say it is specific to Casey's style, since he rides in a peculiar way... he opens up where nobody else does, so others cannot use this software profitably I'm afraid...But the lap times are fantastic!!!
Preziosi: I see... sounds good! I want to check it out, send me the telemetry data etc... ciao.
Suppo: You got it. Ciao ciao!
Several months later...
Estoril, Portugal. The MotoGP race has just started.
Livio Suppo and Walter Domenicali stand in the garage, looking at the monitors. Suppo looks nervous.
Suppo: Walter, look! What is Casey doing?
Domenicali: Well, he's riding... Uh?
Suppo: Don't you see? He goes wide at every corner!
Domenicali: Damn! You're right... I wonder why? Something wrong? Let's call Preziosi...
Suppo quickly dials a number on his cell phone.
Suppo: Filippo? Are you watching the race?
Preziosi: Sure I am! Nice, isn't it?
Suppo: What, nice? Stoner is third! He has problems!
Preziosi: Well, he can't always be first, can he... (smiles to himself) You see, it's not easy even for him, without engine brake...
Suppo? Whaaaat?! WTF – sure, you're right, that's why he's turning so wide! But...
Preziosi: Don’t worry, it’s not a failure, I hacked his ECU and took engine brake out. Everything is under control…
Suppo: Are you maaaad? You know we spent thousands of euros to print gorgeous '2007 World Champ' T-Shirts for this GP, and flags etc., they read 'Estoril 2007' and on the back there is a kangaroo riding a red bike… If he does not win the title here we'll have to throw them! We can't waste any money, you know!
Preziosi: Don't worry, we’ll write that money off as a gift to Adriana... Nobody will notice. And we are going to win the title, money is not going to be a problem any more (laughs).
Suppo: But WHY the hell did you do such a thing?
Preziosi: I do not want us to win the title here! That's all! I want to win it...... in Japan!
Suppo: You're nuts...
Preziosi: Yes! I want to win it in the Japs' backyard! That's all I ask!
Suppo: But why take out the engine brake? That's too much... You could just have given Casey some super-screaming mapping with 30 extra bhp, that would have made the bike intractable enough, he would have had to slow down...
Preziosi: No no, who knows, that boy has surprised us before… he could even manage to ride it and win by 1 mile! I'm fed up of seeing my engine disassembled every other race to verify the displacement!
Suppo: Filippo, we owe you a lot and I cannot be hard on you... But if we lose the title because of this little trick of yours... I don’t know…
Preziosi: No worry man, we'll win! At Motegi!!! Yesssss!!! Baanzaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
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difference is i read and enjoyed all yours
