Welcome to Wallpaper Wednesday. Every week I will post up something beautiful from the world of Ducati that you just might like to have grace your desktop. This week we have the very first belt driven cam Ducat, the Ducati Pantah 500
Look at the picture of this engine. Look familiar? If you ride a 2-valve Monster or a Hypermotard or Multistrada then the engine in your bike can trace it’s routes all the way back to the first Pantah engined machines in 1979.

After a disastrous foray into parallel twins, Fablio Tagalioni produced a small 500cc V-twin, with toothed belts for the cam drive in marked contrast to the bevel drives of the larger Ducatis at the time. The Pantah produced 52bhp at 9,000 rpm and later more powerful 600cc and a rare 650 version were launched. The range was discontinued in 1984 as the 750F1 was launched the following year. The Pantah engine was such an advanced design that it is still in production today!!! Many fans hope that Ducati will one day reintroduce a 2-valve, air-cooled sports range that will be the modern incarnation of the Pantah.