Spaggiari Ducati Scuderia Corse 750 Desmo for the Street

It was always my goal to build a replica of my Spaggiari Ducati Scuderia Corse 750 Desmo racebike for the street.

I am always amazed at how the original idea starts but then morphs into a different if not better concept from once first imagined. As I have owned two 1972 Ducati 750 Bevel-Drive "Wide-Frame" Sports, my first idea was to build a cross between the best of the 72 Sport and the Spaggiari inspired 750 racer. 

The engine was from a 1974 Sport but the frame was from a 750 GT which has the "wide-frame" rear-subframe like the original 1972 Sports. From building up the two 72 Sports, I had numerous extra bodywork. Any other bodywork needed came from Syd's Cycles. Malcolme and Syd have always had great fiberglass bits as they had a great contact in the Marine industry there in Florida who made exceptional quality fiberglass bits. The Imola aluminum petrol tank arrived from Europe via Ebay.

As my favorite Ducati design is the 1972 Sport, every attempt was made to make for a faithful copy of the original but with a Super Sport half-fairing and front mudguard/fender. Once the bodywork was mounted to the yellow frame like the Spaggiari Scuderia racers, the "Z" just did not look proportional or correct on the Imola tank. As a result, the tank was repainted with the Spaggiari Scuderia decals and I used black along the bottom of the Imola tank where the team had painted their contrasting color. 

The bodywork was painted the deeper/darker Ochre Yellow with black like the early 1972 Sports but the frame was painted the deep Ochre Yellow like the Spaggiari team racers. The 900 ss half-fairing was purposeful and refined and the logical evolution in front fairings. It is a good replacement for the original early Sports that were flimsy structurally and due to their design of the headlamp shining through the fairing, were ultimately outlawed in some countries.  The result of the Ducati trellis frame being painted the same colors as the bodywork is true Italian ingenuity in design. Maestro Spaggiari certainly knew how to display team colors! Beyond striking in my opinion. 

This Spaggiari Ducati 750 Desmo received numerous accolades while it was being built except for a few who did not like our use of the Monza fuel cap. There were some logistical reasons that we needed to use the Monza fuel cap and that started with the fact that this tank was originally manufactured for use with a flat aero-style fuel cap which did not look period. It also took up a large surface area on the top of the tank. Many other fuel cap options would not work. However, I have always loved the look of the Monza style fuel cap on the Manx Norton's and have seen similar fuel caps used on other Ducati racers. Therefore, function and our choice in style prevailed. 

I had been accumulating the special engine bits for this project for quite some time. Obviously, I needed to find the Desmo valve gear and cams. However, I ended up accumulating many NOS bits that I hoarded to make this 750 Bevel Drive Desmo engine the best and most reliable that it could be. Below is Syd Tunstall with their 1972 Sport racebike at Daytona. The "Z" stripe really looks best on a Sport tank.

As Malcolme Tunstall had been so instrumental in putting my race engine together, it was just natural that Malcolme built this Factory "Blue-Printed" 750 SS with all of the NOS parts. All of the Desmo valve gear was new as well as the transmission gears. The engine was built to be a purposeful, spirited rider and a crank-up build. 

I personally like the durability of powder-coating and especially for the track. As such, the engine covers had crinkle black powder applied for looks and durability. It is not correct for a 74 Sport to have black covers and cam covers. However, this bike was a custom concept build with my preference for the use of the Ochre Yellow and Black throughout. Wire wheel set and floating rear caliper all came off of my racebike as I prefer mag wheels for tracks here in the US. 

There were two sets of Exhaust Pipes for this bike. I found an aftermarket set of Imola "high pipes" for when going to the track. However, the 2:1 set of pipes came from the Biggelaar inventory and was a crashed item from a Dutch racer that we cut and re-fabricated and then ceramic-coated in black. The Imola "high-pipes" did not need

any reconfiguration as they were new and were also ceramic coated black. In this photo with the Imola pipes, this bike was looking more like the Spaggiari racer. It was lean in its simplicity and strategically purposeful in its function. These factors made this racer a formidable track weapon for the Spaggiari Scuderia Ducati Corse race effort. This project was really coming together as imagined! Now the moment of truth and that was to start this Beast!!

This engine sounds phenomenal despite the poor quality of using a smart phone as the video recorder. The sound is raw and the engine is so eager to build revs quickly through breathing through 40 mm DelOrto carbs and running through the 2:1 exhaust pipe!! At the Ducati Club rides, this engine had no problem keeping up with all of the modern bikes on our twisty mountain roads. Pulled phenomenally strongly!! Such a powerful engine!!

Another one of the upgrades was a large billet oil pump from Ducati Kamna. It is amazing to see the volume of straight 50 wt oil being pumped through the engine via the gear gazer. It was imperative to feed this engine with a very good volume of oil to maintain good longevity and in turn, maintain top performance. 

I personally love the look a purpose built Bevel Drive racer. However, law enforcement just does not understand the musicality of open megaphones. Cannot quite understand their problem. Thus, the 2:1 with "some" baffling allowed us the enjoyment of a vigorous ride with the least amount of interference from law enforcement.

My Spaggiari Ducati Scuderia Corse 750 Super Sport also took part in the monumental photo shop that we did with the customer 1973 Sport at the vintage Shell fuel station out by the famous Tombstone, Arizona. Who knew that vintage Ducati bevel drive 750's could be so at home in the Old West!!

However, this potent Ducati 750 Desmo is most at home at the track and in this case, on a Ducati Soutwest club ride up the twisty mountain roads of Mt. Lemmon, Arizona. The "Beast" was unleashed to do the business! It is my hope that you enjoy riding these magnificent machines that Il Maestro Spaggiari raced after Dr. "T" Taglioni designed and created his Bevel Drive masterpieces. Enjoy a photo of the original Spaggiari Ducati Scuderia Corse 750 that was taken at the Ducati Factory Museum on our last trip to Italy !!