When doing a bit of research a year or so ago, Ducati hinted at 300 produced, but a mechanic who worked for a dealer told me they banged loads out all over the world to try and recuperate some of the money that the 999 was not making through sales. Personally I think the green is rather elegant, if they had upped the specifications rather than only fairing colour I'd have brought one.
I think the run was limited to the four twenty litre pots of incorrectly ordered paint, once they'd sprayed as many fairing as possible and ran out they stopped their 'limited' run.
The colour was lovely, I agree if they had done it in a high spec it would have been the bike to have, oh... And dropped the crappy matrix graphics!
I checked Ian Falloon's Ducati catalogue covering bikes up to 2005 and no numbers are listed but it states for 2004 the 998 Matrix was produced "on request" whatever that means, so it may not be all that of a limited edition as has been mentioned above.
Everything I've seen said 150 but the press releases don't mention a number and they never put plaques on them, so who knows how many they sold!
Got an answer back from Ducati! Very quick reply, very kindly worded email. Great service! Anyway, here are the numbers: 998 Final Edition biposto Europe red 2004 - 277 998 Final Edition biposto Europe black 2004 - 1 998 Final Edition biposto UK red 2004 - 60 998 Final Edition biposto France red 2004 - 46 998 Final Edition biposto Australia red 2004 - 35 998 Final Edition monoposto Australia red 2004 - 20 998 Final Edition monoposto California red 2004 - 112 998 Final Edition monoposto Canada red 2004 - 8 998 Final Edition monoposto Europe red 2004 - 248 998 Final Edition monoposto UK red 2004 - 57 998 Final Edition monoposto France red 2004 - 6 998 Final Edition monoposto Japan red 2004 - 111 That's a total of 981 bikes, of which one (1) was black. I wonder what the story is on that one, it was not (normally) possible to order the FE in black. 419 bipostos, 562 monos.
Cheers Archer, i do like info like this and yes i wonder if the black one is still on the road, I ask how many because a mate has got one that is unregistered and never been on the road and wondered how many were made. Must say i am impressed with Ducati that they seem good at getting back to owners with info on make and models etc.
Sorry, didn't mean to imply I'd asked for the info. I copied it off Ducati.org. I would add that Ducati were very good in getting back to me about my FE, as I wanted to check it's authenticity.
When the Matrix was out I saw one at Ducati London South, when it was in business, that was finished in gloss black with silver logos. I did suspect that they might have had it painted especially for them by a local painter but they said not. Hmmm!!!
pmsl imagine how many times that 1 owner has said 'nah, its genuine' to have the Ducatisi massive bray and hiss and their lack of knowledge and accusatory 'its a fake, mate, you crashed it'
i think the colour is quite special shame about the silly matrix decals i knew a guy who threw his down the road not too long ago full set of new fairings came from Bologna in 4 days so i guess they have some stock left
^^^ It's good to know these parts are still available for these rarer limited run models. It's the thing that's always put me off buying something that is sufficiently rare enough that when you want parts you find that half of them are discontinued.
