Sept. 1: Iconic Italian superbike Ducati roared into town today with its array of road legal performance bikes to raise hairs and goosebumps of bike lovers.
Be it Tom Cruise in Knight and Day on a Hypermotard or Leonardo DiCaprio on a Streetfighter in Inception, Ducati has ruled the tracks, the roads and the celluloid with élan.
And now for speed junkies in the city, Ducati Kolkata, spread over 2,000sq ft on AJC Bose Road, displays seven of the models, along with an array of accessories and merchandise. The dealership has a workshop on Budge Budge Trunk Road.
"We already have 25 Ducatis plying on Calcutta roads," Gaurav Bajaj, proprietor of Ducati Kolkata, said. "They bought their bikes from Delhi and Mumbai where the showrooms had opened earlier."
Ducati's motto is to be as close to its customers as possible, Sergio Canovas, MD, Ducati India Pvt Ltd, who inaugurated the showroom today, said. "Calcutta is an important market for us. It has a very discerning and enthusiastic bike fraternity."
The superbikes that come as completely built units with engines ranging from 800cc to 1200cc retail between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 1.2 crore.
While the Monster 797, an entry to the world of Ducati, will cost Rs 805,000 (ex-showroom) the Monster 1200 S in Liquid Concrete Grey from the same family will set you back by Rs 2,821,000.
The Panigale 959 sports a price tag of Rs 1,458,000 while the Panigale R Final Edition comes for Rs 5,918,000.
Ducati has tourers and cruisers as well, the Multistrada and the Diavel family respectively. The Multistrada 1200 Pikes Peak is ready to take on any racing challenge, named after the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, the second oldest auto race in the US.
The Diavel family offers the DLX, displayed in the showroom, with special features like a multimedia system.
The Hypermotard family from Ducati, awarded the best of show at EICMA or at the Milan Motorcyle Show, has the Hypermotard 939 and the Hyperstrada 939.
The more affordable brand from within Ducati, the Scrambler, launched in the country this year, with its Icon Red retailing at Rs 723,000 and the retro Café Racer and the Desert Sled with prices ranging from Rs 932,000 to Rs 945,000 are popular among Indians.
The company's most expensive Ducati so far, the Ducati 1299 Superleggera, was a limited edition - 500 to be exact.
The showroom has the entire accessories and merchandise range from Ducati, including artificial exhaust pipes, bigger seats, miniature bikes to scale and T-shirts, jackets, raincoats and denims. "We have separate merchandise for each family of bikes, including bike footwear," Ducati Kolkata proprietor Bajaj said.
