Just a couple of points to add to the mix:
A lower-priced production version WILL be released, in a much lower state of tune, without all the magnesium and sand-cast engine parts, for about £15-20k. For this reason, the bike's looks have to be right. It's no good tooling for a production run on a bike nobody likes (they learned that from the stock 999). So you can be sure they'll work hard to make the bike look stunning.
Further to that, because they're still working on the bike's design, they're listening to ideas. If you don't like the looks of the race bike and have ideas on how to improve them, EMAIL Ducati and tell them. The beauty of a small company is that you can often get through to the people that matter (I've had personal replies from Federico Minoli before). If just 10 people from this board emailed with an opinion, that's already 3% of potential buyers for the first production run. Bottom line -- if you're thinking of one -- email them and let them know what you want to see (then try and work out how to afford it! lol)
Wonder how many of us will have remortgaged the wife and pimped out the house by 2006..!
[Edited on 4-6-2004 by robracenut]