Ducati 750 GT Development History

The start of it all

- Alan Cathcart

Exactly fifty years ago in the summer of 1970, a very strange motorcycle was increasingly often spotted in and around Bologna, Italy’s two-wheeled capital. It seemed an ingenious hybrid with a wide-angle V-twin engine set lengthways in the frame, with a distinctive horizontal front cylinder with lengthways finning off an OHV Aermacchi. This had been converted to bevel-drive SOHC to match the rear one, which was obviously off a Ducati single, the pair mounted on a special common crankcase. The frame was apparently homebuilt, with the various ancillary components like the Fontana drum brake all off-the-shelf items. What could it be?

Efforts to ascertain the V-twin’s provenance only resulted in a display of its impressive performance, for attempts to engage the rider in conversation were frustrated when he simply opened the throttle wide, and disappeared into the distance, leaving the enquirer struggling in his wake.

It also handled well too, as one rider of a coveted new CB750 Honda found to his disgust when the well-used, ratty-looking hybrid cleared off from his powerful but hinge-framed Japanese multi returning one summer evening to Bologna from Firenze along the serpentine, switchback curves of the new Autostrada del Sole. But did anyone know what it was?