The website of Italian magazine Motociclismo has unleashed a bunch of spy shots picturing the prototype of the new liquid-cooled Ducati Monster 1198, whose final version should see the light of the day in 2014 and then enter the markets worldwide over the next couple of years.
Although quite heavily camouflaged and covered with some weird adhesive strips, the pictured mule seems to be in its final stage of testing and so it gives us a glimpse of how the final shape of the model will look like.
The lines seem pretty gritty and aggressive: on the right side you can see that the manifolds are pretty similar to those of the Diavel, while many distictive features that have made the Monster famous everywhere – such as the pronounced tank, the minimal tail and the classic steel trellis frame – are still there.
The new model should be equipped with the 1198 cc Testastretta 11° V-Twin engine of the Diavel, capable of delivering 150 horsepower – and that would make it the most powerful Ducati Monster of all time – though it may end up being more similar to the variant powering the recent Hypermotard line-up.
However, the liquid-cooled engine is not a ‘first’ for the Monster range as in 2001 the ‘S4′ version was equipped with the 916 engine of the eponymous and legendary sportsbike.