The sensational Ducati 916

Ayrton Senna was one of Formula One’s most legendary drivers. The Brazilian racer, who won Formula One World Drivers’ Championships in 1988, 1990 and 1991, was revered for his breathtaking risks, competitiveness and uncompromising ambition. In 1994, fresh from winning the European Grand Prix, Senna announced a deal with his favourite motorcycle brand Ducati, agreeing to put his name to a limited run of Ducati Senna bikes. The bike was based on the iconic 916 model designed by Massimo Tamburini, widely considered one of the best, but his model was distinct from the standard gloss red-coloured 916. In honour of Senna, Ducati produced 300 dark grey Senna 1s, 300 silvery grey Senna 2s and 300 Senna 3s in deep black, all with a metallic sheen and red wheels, carbon-fibre bodywork upgrades and uprated suspension. 

A few months before the bike’s release, in May 1994, Senna died at the San Marino Grand Prix when he collided with a concrete barrier at 130mph. The bike was eventually unveiled as a memorial later that year. 

Thirty years later, the bike remains one of the most beloved, and it’s currently a buyer’s market. “If you’ve got the same sort of guts and judgment when speculating about a classic motorcycle as Ayrton Senna had on a race circuit, then there are no doubt some very good deals to be done,” says Chris Mayhew, owner of Lusso Veloce in Leicestershire, which specialises in Italian bikes. 

A Ducati 916 Senna 2...

... and Senna 3

I’d ride it into the underground car park and set off all the car alarms

The earlier and fresher the bike, “the more collectable”, says Mayhew. One that’s basically as new “is a collector’s piece – and they sit well in collections”, says Mark Bryan of specialist vehicle seller Iconic Auctioneers. He sold an unregistered 1995 dark grey Senna 1, number 042 (the 42nd produced), with just three “push miles” on the clock, for a record-setting £45,000 in July 2023 to an anonymous racing driver. Number 223, a Senna 1 that had only done 519 miles, sold for £38,700 in February 2023. 

But “if you’ve got a 7,000-mile Senna, then what’s another 1,000?”, says Bryan. A 1997 Senna 2 (number 222 on the production line) at 17,911 miles is being sold by Sevens & Classics in Kent for £19,995. Moto Strada in Lancashire has a late Senna 1 on 9,225km at £24,995, and a 16,508km Senna 2, a Malaysian import, for £18,995. These machines have been and can still be enjoyed on the road.

For those looking to preserve value, origins are key. “It’s got to be low mileage with full service history, and that’s what’s going to make it worth money in the future,” says Mayhew. Carefully preserved bodywork is essential. Mayhew had a customer who bought a Ducati Senna as an investment and decided to sell because the storage was proving too expensive. “I had to tell him, ‘I can’t sell this.’ It had been crashed on both sides at least once, had non-standard bodywork, was an import, had corrosion. It was basically a nail through and through.” By contrast, he recently advised a customer on buying a Senna 2 that had clocked up 3,400 miles but looked brand new. “The customer sent me to look at it – it was perfect in every way.” Mayhew bought it at auction for £22,500, and shipped it off to the customer in Miami. 

Due to the limited production run, there’s a strong degree of luck involved in finding a Senna. Former City trader Trevor Chiddicks thought he had missed out on buying an early Senna 1 back in 1995. A year later, one of his colleagues was touring the Ducati factory with a company executive while advising on a finance project, when he spotted an unfinished Senna 1 parked in a corner. It turned out to be the very last one. 

Chiddicks rode it to work in Canary Wharf and around his home on the Essex-Suffolk border. “The noise was sensational – I’d ride it into the Credit Suisse underground car park and set off all the car alarms. But what a bike. It was completely planted on the road – you had to be absolutely committed in riding it. A real game-changer.” But after 475 miles of riding he decided to retire it to a stand in his hallway. It was too good to put any more miles on.