Pierre Terblanche

Pierre Terblanche was born in Table Mountain, a town in South Africa. After three years of graphic design study applied to the automotive industry, he had to perform his compulsory military service. Later he started working at the advertising agency Young&Rubicam, but shortly after he met the Italian designer Giorgietto Giugiaro, the creator of car lines as famous as Volkswagen Golf or Fiat Panda, which allowed him to continue his studies at the Royal College of Art in London. After this second phase of training, he was commissioned to draw the lines of the new Volkswagen Polo. 

At the end of the 1970s Terblanche witnessed an epic race in Daytona.

With his tuned Ducati, Cook Neilson won on the official BMWs and Kawasakis. Such a triumph earned the Italian brand great fame in the United States. Fascinated by that race, Terblanche bought a Ducati 750 GT and began to dismantle and reassemble it, by modifying it to make it similar to a 900 SS. Thus began his adventure in two-wheelers’ world. 

He met Massimo Tamburini at the 1985 Milan Motor Show. Thanks to him, Pierre Terblanche began his activity at Cagiva’s factories in Varese, where he started a new phase of his career. 

His first wonderful work at Ducati was the Supermono, considered to be a milestone in motorcycle design, a multi-victory bike on the racetrack.

In 1998, Terblanche carried out an important job for the Bolognese company, of which he was director of the Design Center. Such a job was incredibly important: the 900 Super Sport had an oldish line, which required a strong restyling. Terblanche gave life to a completely new project with futuristic lines.