1988 GV Ducati Classic Mike Hailwood Replica, 973 cc, Limite...

Estimate

£25,000 - £30,000

1988 GV Ducati Classic Mike Hailwood Replica, 973 cc, Limited Edition 18/25. 8 push km only. Registration number not registered. Frame number ZDM1000R - 101033. Engine number ZDM1000L - 101177.
Some of Mike Hailwood's earliest successes had come on small-displacement Ducati twins, and so when Manchester dealership Sports Motorcycles offered him an ex-works NCR Ducati 900SS for the 1978 Isle of Man TT F1 race, he jumped at the chance. At 37, he was thought to be past his prime and hadn't raced on the daunting 37-mile circuit in a decade, but Hailwood nevertheless won the six lap race at an average speed of over 108mph. Following Paul Smart's 1972 Imola 200 win and Cook Neilson's 1977 Daytona Superbike victory, (both on 750SS Ducatis), Hailwood's hugely popular TT success finally secured Ducati's place on the world stage.
Ducati celebrated Hailwood's TT win by producing the Mike Hailwood Replica from 1979-86. Essentially a standard 80hp 'square case' 900SS with an NCR-replica 4-gallon tank, seat and full fairing in Sports Motorcycles' tricolore livery, the MHR was good for 137mph. With relatively minor updates being made over the years, around 7,000 MHRs were produced in total.
This sensational machine, a Ducati Mille Mike Hailwood Replica, was constructed by the Ducati Agent Gerold Vogel as the eighteenth example of 25 built in 1988/89. It is based on the brand new 1986 model and the finished result received the blessing of none other than famed Ducati Construction Engineer Fabio Taglioni himself. As homage to Taglioni who went into retirement in 1983, the master's signature has been engraved on the left engine casing as well as the sightglass of the layshaft.
This rare machine was dispatched from Vogel's on th 12th December 1988 via Switzerland to Interforst of Assens in Denmark. Unused it was with Johan Delin of Sverige in Denmark in 2005 and at a later date came to the UK to a West Country collector who exchanged it as part of a deal for an MG P type race car with our vendor.
Sold with the Vogel certificate, Swiss paperwork, Danish export paperwork and the full two piece body fairing. NOVA has been applied for.
This is a unique opportunity to purchase a rare machine that has not been fired up or used, only pushed some 8 kilometres in it 30 years of existence and Spicers can highly recommend it to its next custodian.