Corse Gallery

MarkT

This is a section that members can show their Corse's. Along with the picture a narrative about the bike's history if known and what parts on the bike are not Corse parts. If the parts are exact reproductions that is fine. Non Corse parts that have not been identified may lead a member to believe that the part is correct. I am sure each bike will be debated.

I will start with my "new to me" '93. Ferracci bought this bike from the factory for the '93 AMA season. It is one of the four Works bikes that Ferracci bought for Doug Polen and Pascal Picotte to ride. This bike is supposedly Doug Polen's #2 bike per the stamp on the upper triple tree. Brad Hazen purchased this bike at the end of '93 and raced it in '94. He crashed the bike at Road Atlanta when he got into a fight during the race with Scott Doohan. The bike was stripped down and a new frame along with other parts to repair the bike was bought from Ferracci. Before the bike was assembled the AMA banned Hazen from AMA racing. The bike was sold in pieces with all of the major pieces except for the motor, wire harness and carbon rotors bought by Tom Tasso. Tom assembled the bike and built a new 955 motor for it using a NOS Corse case and a factory 955 kit. The heads are reworked 888 street heads and the gearbox is 748. The bike was set up to ride on the street with a fabricated wire harness. Tom showed this bike at many Ducati shows so it is a well-known bike in the US.

I am going to install the correct 955 motor and Corse wire harness. If I can ever the correct 280 mm carbon rotors I will install them. The aluminum bracket on the back is just a seat support Tom added. There may be more non Corse parts but I have not gone through the bike yet.

This is one of those bikes that have a well documented oral history but very little paperwork and a replacement frame. The aluminum Works tag is on the new frame but it has no stamp on the headstock. So for the purist this is not a true Corse but a collection of parts. Some will also say that it should not be set up as a Polen bike due to the lack of documentation from Mr. Ferracci. I am working to get documentation but believe there is little hope of receiving any from Mr Ferracci.

phl851

MarkT wroteSo for the purist this is not a true Corse but a collection of parts.

Now then Mark,
it's not looking too shabby for a 'Bitsa'😁
What's the story on the bodywork?
Phil

MarkT

phl851 wroteNow then Mark, it's not looking too shabby for a 'Bitsa'😁 What's the story on the bodywork? Phil

Phil -

The bodywork is a copy of the Polen bikes as set up at the beginning of the '93 AMA season ---Tom knew it was a Polen bike even if it did not have all of the paperwork= because he bought it from Brad Hazen who bought the bike from Ferracci but did not keep the paperwork.

I am going to paint up another set of bodywork because as good as these look and are carbon fiber- they are not factory with the foam inserts. I will decide then if I want to follow Tom's lead and keep it as a Polen bike or keep it plain. The bike has been shown at big shows as the Polen bike so I may keep it that way.

griff851

Mark I can personally verify that as the genuine article. It has a green piece of something holding the battery in place. If you look closely at many race machine pictures, you will note this. Green rubber bands and green electrical wire abound. Its a bit spooky really.😳

Mr.R

Obviously not the same Polen bike, but when the Factory brought one of his WSB Championship winning bikes over to the UK for a tour of the University design dept's, I had a very close look at it and was allowed to sit on it, it had the open "Letterbox" type of fuel tank and when I opened the throttle I could actually see the back of the inlet valves in the rear head.

Steve R

sp2 boy

Which year Polen bike was that Steve, I think Mark also has Polen's earlier bike with the 851 carbon tank. 😁

Foggy 888

This is a 1993 Factory Works 888, it is from the same batch that Ducati made for Fogarty and Fallappa to ride in the 1993 WSB series. Fast by Ferracci received four of them (two for Doug Polen and two for Pascal Picotte). Ducati wanted to win an AMA Superbike championship, so they gave FBF the best bikes that they had at the time. Usually FBF got the previous years works World Superbikes. The front forks are the give-away, only the 10 or so 1993 Works bikes had these front forks with bolt on caliper bracket mounts (72mm spacing) and 80mm spacing on the front fender bolts holes ( thus necesitating the need for a special front fender just for the Works bikes). The standard customer Corsa forks used 40mm spacing on the caliper mounts and 85mm spacing on the front fender mounts.

There is no way that you can see the throttle bodies on either a 1993 customer 888 Corsa or a Works Corsa without lifting the fuel tank.

outtacontrolla

Oxford 851 corsa 1992

Thought i'd add some update pics of my Oxford products bike from 1992 .
Full history and pics here -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/redmaxspeedshop/albums/72157648608150402/with/34319358780/
Lower pic as I had it on the road , 1995 Devimead/ Ray Stringer livery , on the A34 going to Santa pod for some drag racing fun !
Cheers Steve .

outtacontrolla

Patina or paperwork ?

For Mark T , 93 Ferraci corsa .

This is one of those bikes that have a well documented oral history but very little paperwork and a replacement frame. The aluminum Works tag is on the new frame but it has no stamp on the headstock. So for the purist this is not a true Corse but a collection of parts. Some will also say that it should not be set up as a Polen bike due to the lack of documentation from Mr. Ferracci. I am working to get documentation but believe there is little hope of receiving any from Mr Ferracci.[/QUOTE]

Do you still have her ?
I think a bike like that is more authentic than a bike with confirmed frame nos and paperwork but no original pieces ! like some "restorations " , I would rather see the patina and history !
Steve .

MarkT

Hi Steve-

Nice to see you still have your Oxford. I would like to see more sans bodywork photos- from what I can see the Oxford team made frame changes (extra frame tube on the right side?) and used non-factory parts (triple tree) which they felt improved the bike. At least this is my assumption. Always interesting to see a bike which reflects the personality of the team and rider.

Yes I still have my '93 AMA Ferracci bike. I now have a chain of custody documentation starting with the Brad Hazen and his sponsor who bought the bike from Ferracci. I got an earful from the sponsor about the fights they had with Ferracci because the motor blew up on their first race at Daytona due to a clapped out the motor. I remember many debates in the early years of the email based 851/888 forum about who built the better motor Bruce or Ferracci and all of the complaints a number of Ferracci customers had about finding clapped parts in their motors after teardown. Later that season Hazen crashed it at Road Atlanta while banging fairings with Mick Dohan's brother. It was a big deal back then with the corner worker performing mouth to mouth as the story is told. He pulled the bike apart after the crash and then bought a replacement frame from Ferracci. At that point, he was banned from AMA so he raced in a California series. He then parted out the bike - I have his part/price list. My friend bought as much of it as he could afford and put it on the street. I bought it from him and made it correct with the last 955 motor Ferracci built.

There is really no demand for these great old Corses in the US so the history of these bikes mean very little. But as you can tell from my second photo I am very passionate about these bikes and I love restoring them- so having the history of my bikes is a very personal thing. Aside from a few bits and pieces all of my Corse's are pretty much finished and because I no longer bring one to the track I have only been able to look at them. Lucky for me-I am currently rebuilding a friend of mines who stashed his away 15 years ago and now wants to make it correct. It may be the last one I will work on.

nine16

There are still some of us out here who appreciate them, Mark.

MarkT

Thank you--- good to hear from someone in the US who appreciates these first 4V Corse's.

outtacontrolla

Frame mods for daytona ...

[QUOTE=MarkT;71062]Hi Steve-

Nice to see you still have your Oxford. I would like to see more sans bodywork photos- from what I can see the Oxford team made frame changes (extra frame tube on the right side?) and used non-factory parts (triple tree) which they felt improved the bike. At least this is my assumption. Always interesting to see a bike which reflects the personality of the team and rider.

Hi Mark ,
yes the frame was rebuilt for the 93 Daytona 200 race
by the guy in the UK that built the Trellis framed works Nortons! I think they reworked the existing frame into something special to stop the chatter problem all the teams had , rumour was it was done in lightweight 531 tubing , anyway the headstock area is completely boxed in top n bottom , there is extra large bracing on the x parts and around the left footrest and a extra tube added in on the right , but I understand this is to protect the crankcases from accident damage as they are expensive and fragile anyway .. I think the yokes and later footrests were added by the Devimead team in 94 .
Engine was 955 spec by then and I bought this bike because of this higher spec when I could have bought Foggy's corsa for a similar amount as I was racing it not collecting them at the time ! (95) .
I ran it in supertwins drag racing and sound of thunder club racing for years , until swapping to my 1026cc 996 in the 2000's .
I love your collection , you have an eye for it - no one else have ever mentioned the extra frame rail !
I have attached the naked frame pic I have and one of the team at Daytona with Hislop .
Cheers Steve .

MarkT

Thank you for the pictures and the insights into the team. Very cool. Love to see these older battle axes which reflect the team's personality by their mods which other teams did not think of or were afraid to change factory designs. Great looking at all the bits and especially checking out the welds which reflect the pragmatic- get-it-done approach this team seemed to practice.

I ran my Corse's from '97 to 2009- as you can tell by the period classic leathers in my avatar. In 2009 I bought a salvage D16 and continued doing track days until three years ago when my fragile broken back started warning me about having a crash. I haven't crashed on the track for over 20 years but once you starting being worried about crashing it is time to get off the track.