Ducati TT 1 Racer by Italianiron for Road & Track, Post #1

I have always been drawn to Tony Rutter's Blue on Red TT 1 Racer with Ducati 750 cc engine based upon his history of racing successes. As a result, we had to build one!! Additionally, these early Pantah derived engines were the predecessor to the modern Ducati Superbikes. It was in large part due to the contributions of racer, Tony Rutter and race engineering technical expert, Patrick Slinn and their world class racing successes that the TT 1 and TT 2 Racers remain such a significant part of Ducati's racing history. Team Rutter/Slinn won 4 World Championships in Formula 2 as well as countless other races worldwide. Seen below is Pat Slinn in front of the Two Wheel Classics shop near Manchester, UK. 

It has been very exciting for us at Italian Iron Classics to be able to participate in this rich history as the US based dealer for Two Wheel Classics-UK. Jim Blomley who owns TWC is good friends with both Tony Rutter and Pat Slinn. It is due to this relationship that Jim and TWC has been able to offer the Ducati racing world direct copies of these magnificent racing motorcycles for the past few decades. We offer these chrome-moly chassis and TT bodywork kits that are direct copies of Tony's famous TT racers.

We will have our Ducati TT 1 and other TT racers with us at the World Superbike races at the world famous Laguna Seca Racetrack in beautiful Monterey, California. Dates for the event are 11 July to 15 July 2019. Come by and take a look "under the hood" of what it takes to use one of our kits and to build a TT racer for the racetrack, spirited track days or for the road. Come and meet us at Tent #9 in the Hagerty marketplace!! Our kits require a donor bike such as a Ducati Monster or Supersport. However, at Italian Iron Classics we have Pantah as well as modern Ducati engines, swingarms, wheels and suspension available to help you with your build. 

It very often requires resources within our Ducati community to have a successful build. In this case, we are using a 750 cc Elephant engine in our TT 1 racer project that came from my friend Chavezs Medovich who works for Biggelaar Performance in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands. We added this engine to the sea container of other bits as the bottom-end of this engine had just been serviced. Jan Biggleaar "flowed" a set of dual-plug race heads that I had purchased from former AMA racer, Tom Hull. Due to the configuration of these heads, we ended up using 13:1 high compression Pistal race pistons from Ed Milich. We are using our TWC "spider" clutch actuator for our dry clutch. They are available for either push-rod or thrust bearing option.

Once our engine was re-painted and then reassembled, it was time for us to mount our TWC chrome-moly TT frame around the 750 cc Ducati power plant and to begin the "dry-fitting" of our glorious Blue on Red bodywork kit. Our TT frame "wraps around" our 750 cc engine perfectly and without any modifications. Our frames will accommodate 750 cc through 1100 cc Ducati engines at present. However, there was some trimming of the fins required on our TT 1000 engine so that everything would clear properly. See blog posts on our TT 1000 build on our Italianiron.com website.  

At Italian Iron Classics, we have an electrical guru in Bill Eley who makes our wiring looms from scratch to improve reliability. This TT 1 will have LED headlamps in the recesses of the front cowling/fairing that will provide some challenges. Additionally, we also like using the Speedhut dual tacho & speedo gauge as this will be a dual purpose road & track Ducati TT racer and will need to be directly wired in. Thanks to Malcolme at Syd's Cycles for the Dyna dual coils for our dual-plug race heads that will wake up this 750 cc Elephant engine. 

For those who do not wish to make their own looms, we do offer complete race or street wiring looms. Many times a good donor bike will have much of the wiring and switch gear needed for your Ducati TT racer project. However, if you do not trust the wiring loom and bits that came from your donor bike, then we are happy to help you with professional grade wiring looms to fit your application. 

We also offer a chrome-moly TT 2 frame that is a direct copy of Tony Rutter's World Championship F2 winning TT 2 racer for the early Ducati 600 Pantah & Derivative engines. Additionally, we are also Marvic and Campagnolo dealers. We can assist you if necessary with technical assistance or just provide our billet and other race bits to assist you in your build of a faithful replica for your particular application. Our TT 2 that was raced in the UK will be on display at our Italian Iron Classics tent #9 at Laguna Seca. Do check the vendor's board to double check our location. Hope to see you there!!