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"  Audi&amp;#039;s recent $1.1 billion bid for Italian bike builder Ducati raised plenty of speculation about VW honcho Ferdinand Piech&amp;#039;s motivations (a crushing vision of two and four-wheeled world domination?) But recently unearthed interviews reveal another underlying theme: compact, lightweight engine technology. The priority sheds light on the incredible packaging challenges faced-- and largely overcome-- in superbike design. &amp;quot;A 1 liter engine can produce 200 horsepower,&amp;quot; Piech was quoted in a 2008 article in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, as cited in Automotive News. &amp;quot;Small engines are also lower from the point of view of fuel consumption,&amp;quot; he added. &amp;quot;We can learn something here.&amp;quot; The new mill in Ducati&amp;#039;s 1199 Panigale typifies advances unique to the superbike genre that could some day be repurposed into the car world: the 195 horsepower, 1,198cc engine features an oversquare profile approaching that of an F1 powerplant. Frictional losses have been reduced through separate Nikasil-coated aluminum wet cylinder liners, oil and water pump gears constructed of lightweight techno-polymers, and pistons with a double-ribbed undercrown area. As BMW learned with the development of their S1000RR superbike engine, there&amp;#039;s plenty of technology to cross-pollinate between the automotive and motorcycle worlds: if the Volkswagen Group chooses to consummate their relationship with Ducati, we might see the beginnings of an unprecedented series of technological advances that trickle into the four-wheeled realm. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/motorcycles/a7520/what-does-vw-see-in-ducati/>