It turns out even not so great mind's think alike. My go-to-guy (GTG) and I had both arrived at a similar place, wanting a fun versatile middle-weight that wouldn't crater our bank account, albeit we'd arrived from completely different directions. Tired of the financial and maintenance burden associated with highly stressed desmoquattro's, he had taken a slight detour in opting for something a little more robust: a testastretta. A 2005 749R to be exact.
There was only one problem: the GFC. As we all know, the recovery was painfully slow and the near complete 749R project was a big lump of badly needed cash sitting on the wrong side of his small-business ledger. After much to-ing and fro-ing a deal was done at a price neither of us was particularly comfortable with...meaning it must have been pretty fair.
So just what had I bought? You have to go back to what my GTG had bought: a very tired import track bike that had done it rough, last seen literally lying in a puddle which had fried the ECU and, after sitting forlornly in a workshop, seized a cylinder. I'd actually seen it on track a few times and then advertised for sale after its unfortunate demise, but with one of those "by negotiation" type price tags that puts everyone including me, off. Not my GTG, who rescued it with a very cheeky offer. Luckily for the poor wee thing it couldn't have asked for a better person to drag it from a very dark place into the light.
By the time I came on the scene there was very little on the bike that wasn't either new, or improved.
Pic's of the build in progress:
A few of the upgrades:
- New frame
- Carbon fibre fuel tank
- Engine completely rebuilt, heads ported and flowed by Chris Steadman (CJS Racing, UK)
- Large volume carbon fibre Shift-Tech airbox and runners
- 749RS intake trumpets
- 57mm Leo Vince "Corsa" exhaust
- Fast by Ferracci slipper clutch
- Nemesis ECU
- Digitek Falcon dash
- Ducati Performance front fairing bracket and harness
- IRC billet brake/clutch masters
- New Brake Tech cast iron rotors and organic pads to suit
- Ohlins forks and shock rebuilt with upgraded internals
- Euro Racing quick-turn throttle
- Carbon fibre race fairings
- 16.5" Marvic Mg rims (plus 17" Marvic Mg rear, cast OEM 17" Marchesini's)
Now, I have to admit, the 749/999 is no Sophia Loren in stock road going form. I don't find it ugly, I just find it.....frustrating. There are some really cool design touches completely spoiled by other clumsy features. Things like the the line of the tank being corrupted by a horrible inbuilt tank pad, the deflectors/wings, the weird curved cast swingarm, the fugly OEM muffler arrangement etc. It's such a shame because most of it would cost very little to "correct" yet would make for a much more cohesive design. I actually get the whole "art deco train" design ethos Terblanche had in mind, but for such a bold fresh look the things that let it down are mostly mundane bits and bobs.
Having said that, I've always quietly liked them in race trim, I guess because most of those frustrating bits and bobs get hurled in the bin. The later red frame ties things together in a way the early grey frame just doesn't, the fabricated "box" swingarm looks weapons-grade tough, leave the wings on the shelf, and bolt on a decent exhaust to improve both sight and sound.
But cutting to the chase and my apologies for disturbing the time-space continuum as this is actually from a little later on, here she is reborn and ready to race. She mightn't be Sophia Loren but devoid of those clumsy practicalities I mentioned she still does it for me in a hot-girl-next-door kinda way:
