Back in the early 90s Ducatis WERE genuinely exclusive. But then they were comparatively much more expensive than the Japs (than they are now) and had all sorts of issues with quality control and reliability that came with being an under-capitalised small firm. They also came close to bankruptcy on numerous occasions. The balance is better now as the brand still retain an exclusive air, but economies of scale and re-capitalisation have clearly enabled them to design and build much better machines than they did then.
At a time when a fireblade was 7k, less as a parallel import, a 748 was 12k?? No wonder they were exclusive...bit like std entry minipani being 22k
I googled ginger nuts and your photo popped up from an old edition of the SNP young members. You must have been overseas on holiday as its sunny in that photo.