http://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/news-and-views/features/bikes/one-mans-50-million-ducati-collection/#.U6nznPldVBcNot sure if there is anyone out there that can beat the sheer amount of unobtanium that's sitting in that room.
"The Ducati Museum at the Bologna-based factory is impressive, and I’m lucky enough to have been plenty of times in the past, but never have I seen quite a collection of Ducati motorcycles quite like this. The factory themselves only has around five MotoGP bikes in its halls. Tony O'Neill has 50!
At the back of the shed is everything from Troy Bayliss’ WSB Championship-winning 996 from 2001, championship-winning Hodgson, Toseland 999s and Checa 1098 WSB bikes. In the GP department there’s the fire-breathing 990 Desmosedici that Loris Capirossi rode which used to run so hot it cooked the rider, to Valentino Rossi’s Ducati Desmosedici D11’s and everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything in between.
Look around and it’s a sea of carbon-fibre and red from early Loris Capirossi GP bikes to later variations of the Desmosedici’s from Stoner’s screaming 19,000rpm 800 to Hayden and Rossi’s terrifying 1000s from 2011 and 2012.
The collection is staggering. It’s incredible, and even a few days later I can’t quite believe what I saw with my own eyes.
Sat at the back of the room is the original prototype four-stroke GP1 bike that Ducati built before the MotoGP series existed as an early test bed for the Desmosedici project. It’s a bike rarely even seen in photos, let alone in the metal. We’re stood next to it. It’s completely different to anything else in the collection. Longer, squatter looking and big for a GP bike. But this is where the journey for Ducati’s MotoGP bike began."
