I didn't go on this test, but I'd been at Monza a couple of days before on the Pirelli Diablo Corsa tyre launch, and managed a session on a 999s round the super-fast Italian track. The 999s was, frankly, amazing, and felt twice as manageable as the FireBlade and R1 I'd been round on previously. The low seat puts you at ease through Monza's shitty chicanes, while the Brembo brakes knocked my socks off at the end of each 150mph straight. And at the end of the front straight, the 'S' was ten kph quicker than the Edwards RSV Mille 'R' I rode a week later. Italian track, Italian tyres, Italian bike is always a good combo, but my brief wazz on the 999s really was something special.

When the 916 was fresh it gained so much prestige and credibility as a race bike that people overlooked it as a road bike. The 600s have always embarrassed it on the road, and that's still true today. It coughs and spits before it stalls…which happens to be at every set of traffic lights. On the track it was a bit of a joke because the GSX-R1000 screamed by on the straights like it was standing still. It gets a lot of oohs and ahhs when parked up, but that's only coming from those who haven't ridden it and buy into all the Italian exotica hype bullshit.