Hi guys, I'm just wet dreaming, but what are 955 corsa's like? All I know is that they were 955 and only fifty? were made Not that i'm in the position to buy one but it would be nice to find out a bit more about them, I remember many years ago Rob and pro-twins raving about them. Or was he raving about how much their owners parted with for servicing... can't quite be sure!
Ducati 955 Corsa bits of info here. if you had asked a month ago I knew of one for sale in the uk, around 25k
One 955 was an official import, a sales manager at a VW dealer in Nottingham owned it from new, can't remember his name now. It was when there were 3 official Ducati importers for the UK. Sports Motorcycles had asked the factory for a bike to race at the TT & they sent a 955SP over, only it didn't arrive in time. So one of their customers (VW sales manager above) lent them his own 916SP for them to race, unfortunately there was a fatal accident in the race & the 916SP was I believe destroyed. To make amends, Sports motorcycles handed over the 955 when it arrived. There was also a company based in the South East that brought in a few 955's from the states & asked huge amounts of money for them, I believe that Pro-Twins might have been linked to this company in some way, that company also brought in Fast by Ferraci products but unfortunately went bust...
Ahhhh... you'd be thinking of the grade A wankers known as HT Automotive. The pro-twins boys and Steve Hillary started out there.
My first memory of them was their double page spread in Superbike Magazine. They had that gorgeous 888sp in pride of place and the two big Ferraci logos. I'd just bought my SS not long before and got them to fit a dynojet kit and the Ferracci Hi level slip ons with that distinctive brass plaque logo. The bike got delivered back with much talk of dyne figures and pull like a train. The first ride I did the bike cut out on the mickelham bends! Their remedy was to string the fuel lines round the outside of the frame, and their dyno I later found out when I went down there was the A23. What a bunch of deceitful wankers I thought, and they'd been paid handsomely for the privilege. In the end it was Geoff Baines sorted the bike. Up at new lands corner at the time was a guy we called Ducati Dave, a really nice top bloke who was some senior guy at Hagen Daas. He bought all his dukes form there, upgrading every few months until the last I saw of him was on a 916SP and he'd handed over the full money for a 955 apparently. The time I went down there after that was greeted by some different faces, and I got the impression unless I wanted to part with a shit load of cash and the ferracci catalogue's bit I wasn't really that welcome. Pity as Steve hillary and Rob were still exceptional guys to talk to and their enthusiasm was infectious. I later heard they'd gone bust owing a lot of people money, and one guy I'd spoke to said that he'd dropped his bike in there only to see his marches ini rims on another customers machine. Sounded like robbing peter to pay paul, but in truth that might have been just someone talking rubbish, I'll never know. That said, John, Rob and Steve always came across as throughly good chaps (so I try and tell myself the intention was always there to do the right thing). The last I saw of John Taylor (I think his name was) was flogging TVR's out of Galleria Bimota's old place in Cranleigh and then moving just south of Haselmere if I remember correctly. Talking of which Dave Pickworth at the Galleria, Top guy. He knew I didn't have a pot to piss in, but he always greeted me with a smile, and a cup of coffee, and once he let my ride a Bimota Tesi ES off the front and into the showroom. That really stuck in my mind and I'm only sorry that I couldn't ever say thanks with a bike sale. So yea, HT automotive... there's a mystery! (Although I reserve the title of Utter Cunts to Performance Techniques suspension who took money for an ohlins rear shock, front forks revalve and setup up front, got the stuff in and went bust. Never received my shock. What a bunch of arseholes).
