The logo to the right of the picture was identified by the people at Ducatisti as being from the Italian frame manufacturer MT. According to their (limited) site, they pride themselves on producing very clean MiG welds, which stood out for me when I saw the frame for the first time.
The marking 178 1.A is a generic Ducati part number, nothing special. The date is obviously the date that the frame was produced.
Another buddy at Ducatisti contacted the Ducati factory for me in order to find out more about the frame. What we found was interesting: MT made a few early 749R frames. My 749R - babyR - has one of these (dated 28/11/03 - a Friday, just days before the mystery frame was constructed - the next Tuesday). My 749R was one of the first imported into England and may have been in the first batch that left the factory. While I don't know exactly how many frames were made by MT (yet), I do know that not all 749R frames were made by them. Later frames do not have the MT markings and are likely produced by Ducati or their usual frame manufacturer.
As stated below, the frame is the same weight as a 'standard' 749R frame and has no clear differences apart from the quality of the welds. The tubing must be the same and there is likely to be no measurable difference between a frame produced by MT and any other 749R frame.
The factory is currently trying to find out more about the 'RS' frame, but so far, they're as clear as I am. Not very.
As far as I know there are no difference between so-called 749RS and 749R frame; this was due to WSS limitations about frame modification.
ReplyDelete749R frames where produced both from mt (first ones) and then mainly from verlicchi, on Ducati design and specification so they looks exaclty the same.
Thanks Max. Yes, I agree that the WSS rules would prevent the factory producing 'special' race frames. That's logical and underlines how special the homologated 749R is.
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