Który Scrambler jest prawdziwy? Walka pomiędzy Borile i Ducati

Jeżeli ktoś nie słyszał o najnowszym motocyklu Ducati, przez ostatnie kilka miesięcy musiał mieszkać w jaskini. Ducati Scrambler to jeden z najbardziej opisywanych i wychwalanych motocykli tego roku. Kampania reklamowa włoskiego producenta była naprawdę ciekawa i zaostrzyła apetyt fanów na tą maszynę. Jednak inna włoska firma - Borile, rości sobie prawa do wyglądu modelu Scrambler. Producenci od bardzo dawna współpracują ze sobą i mają na koncie kilka wspólnych sukcesów. Co się stało, że Borile zaczęło stawiać Ducati w złym świetle? Umberto Borile, dyrektor generalny fabryki Borile wysłał do Ducati list otwarty, w którym atakuje wspólnika. Oryginał w języku angielskim przedstawiamy poniżej:

"Open letter from Umberto Borile to Mr. Claudio Domenicali, CEO of Ducati.
Vo, December 19th, 2014

Dear Mr. Claudio Domenicali,

May I be a little formal even if usually it is not common between bikers, but I do not consider you so, please forgive me, but that’s what I think.

I want to start from 1998, when Franco Farnè phoned me. I met him the first time together with Mr. Fabio Taglioni at Carlo Mazzuccato’s place in Este, when he was importer of Jawa speedway motorbikes.

Borile 450 ScramblerBorile 450 Scrambler

He asked me if I could fix a problem with the lubricant circulation on a Ducati 851 engine. The problem was the lubricant had to pass through the radiator and going back into the engine. He asked me because at that time I was importing tubes from Earl’s and Goodbridge, and a common friend told him that I had all that was needed to do a similar operation.

Borile 450 ScramblerBorile 450 Scrambler

I don’t deny that I was enthusiastic about that, not only for the money (I didn’t get any), but because I could have entered Ducati Corse, and I would have helped Ducati with a problem. I nearly didn’t believe that. I remember that, while I was working on that 851, there was an old man, with half cigar in his mouth, who was beating a piece of metal, he was rounding it manually with a hammer, helped by anvil, to make a part of an exhaust system. Such a fascinating memory that I still keep it into my heart.

Borile 450 ScramblerBorile 450 Scrambler

They took me out for lunch, and I found myself at the table with Gianluigi Mengoli, Farnè and some others, and I cannot hide that, I was feeling the most important person on earth.

I got back to work and I got back on my tubes and collectors to finish what I considered an honour.
I put all my manual skills together with my great passion for motorbikes and I could finish before it was dark, and I thought it was a masterpiece.

I received the praises from all of them, and that was more worthy than anything else.

You can think, Mr. Domenicali, that my love for Ducati was deep-rooted already in 1972, when I was doing motocross races with the RT 450; this work on the 851 was the last piece to virtually consecrate myself as a “Ducati man”.

When, in 2010, I had the idea of revisiting the legendary Scrambler 450, I talked about that with Mr. Del Torchio, I went to  visit him bringing a sketch that showed how I would have interpret it, just asking to be supplied with the thermal units.

When I showed him my sketches, he really liked that and he immediately called Ducati’s management in his office to show the project, everybody supported it. Ducati wouldn’t have spent a coin, indeed could have had some benefits selling me the thermal units, and maybe, if my engine would have been reliable, could have been interested in acquiring the project and in re-doing the legendary Ducati Scrambler 450.
You can think that I was so deeply in management’s heart that, that same day, they took me to see what no one else was allowed: the prototypes which were going to be on the road the following years. I saw the Diavel before every “normal” man.

A contract for the supply of the rear thermal units of the 1100 and 696 was written by Ducati, from whom we would have built the 450 model and the 350 model and they even gave me the licence to use the brand “Scrambler”. We sign that, between smiles and handshakes, and I promised, as they desired, that they would be the first ones to try it.

I called my old friend and great technician Francesco Villa: he also had in his vein a bit of “Ducati’s blood” because he worked there in 1955, in the Corse Department, together with Mr. Tagline. I saw him more than happy, almost 80 years old, to start a new motoring adventure. We started working on the sketches and the on the models, fusions etc.

In 2011 we presented at Eicma the “maquette” of what was going to be our interpretation of the legendary Scrambler.  I don't need to remind you how big was the success the motorbike collected, defined by a Mediaset journalist, the most beautiful motorbike of Eicma 2011. We gained, at the Eicma, the permission to supply our Scrambler to Ducati’s dealers, as they were asking it. We were more than happy.

We started our tests on the road, till the day when, as we promised, we went to Ducati to let them try it.
A few weeks later we organized the tests for the press, just during the period when Mr. Del Torchy was leaving Ducati for a new adventure and you were to replace him.

From that day bad feelings started between Ducati and Borile.

I never understood why.

I never understood why you didn’t call me or didn’t tell me something, you didn’t have to, but a gentleman would have done it. Is there some dignity anymore? Even because, if we want to be venial, my company have invested lots of money to build an engine around Ducati’s thermal units and to launch the Scrambler project, as we agreed in writing, without even counting all the working hours, the nights, the technicians and the kilometres spent on that project.

Even if we overlook the fact that you had the idea to make the Scrambler, and I do not want to think that this idea came to you because you saw  the success generated by ours, I hope that Ducati doesn’t need that because, otherwise it means to be “at the end of  the road” - did we bother you? They were and still are two different bikes, but the project to invest on revisiting the Scrambler is mine, why that maliciousness?

We do not build motorbikes to get rich, we do it for passion; it’s not the marketing that tells me what to do, it’s my heart.

Believe me, during my existence I had to face the worst malice fate that a man, a father, could bear. Everything that is going on right now doesn't even touch me. But still I cannot bear the maliciousness.

Best Regards
Umberto Borile
President
Borile Motociclette"