When most people think of Ducati, they think of bright red superbikes built for top speed on racetracks around the world. However, this was not always the case. In fact, although the Ducati brand dates back to 1926, it was not until 1946 that the company began to manufacture motorcycles. By the 1950s, Europe had fallen in love with racing, and the Motogiro d’Italia was one of the most prestigious races of them all. Winning this 3,000km race would be huge for any motorcycle manufacturer, so Ducati set out to make a motorcycle specifically to win these races.
In 1955, the 100cc Gran Sport Marianna was unveiled, marking the company’s first use of a bevel-gear single-cylinder engine. A year later, the 125cc model arrived and the company called on iconic racer, Giuliano Maoggi, to pilot the bike in the 1956 Motogiro d’Italia. Maoggi would race to victory on the 125 Marianna and earn the nickname “The Italian Duke” after winning the Gran Fondo competition. Despite the popularity of these grueling, open-road races, the Italian government shut them down shortly thereafter.
Marcelo Doffo had the honor of meeting Giuliano Maoggi in 2008. The pair instantly hit it off and a longstanding friendship bloomed. During one of Marcelo’s visits to Italy, he was introduced to Mr. Luigi Pini, a retired mechanical engineer that had a passion for recreating the very unique “exposed valve spring” cylinder heads used on the Ducati Marianna. Marcelo’s journey to find the rare racing components to build a true replica of the 125 Gran Sport had begun. Although Pini had access to Ducati 125cc engines, Marcelo opted to find a motor much closer to those used in the racing motorcycles of the time. Fortunately, he found a 125cc Ducati engine that was licensed to be manufactured in Spain. The major difference was that the Spanish motor had been mated to a 5-speed gearbox as opposed to the standard Italian-manufactured 4-speed. Much like the race teams of the time, Marcelo opted for the 5-speed to allow for better gear ratios and higher top speed.
Marcelo’s streak of luck continued on his annual pilgrimage to the vintage Italian motorcycle mecca: the Reggio Emilia Vintage Motorcycle Swap Meet. Within a few minutes of walking through the enormous event, he stumbled upon a set of original brakes for the Marianna! The most difficult part of the build remained: the aluminum gas tank with double fill caps and a recessed indentation for the carburetor velocity stack. Marcelo dug into his network of known collectors and was able to borrow an original Marianna gas tank to have an exact copy made by famed metal fabricator, Evan Wilcox, out of Northern California.
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It only seemed fitting then that we should commemorate this motorcycle and one of its most famous pilots on the MotoDoffo Super Tinto label. What better way to introduce the MotoDoffo brand of wines to the world than by depicting one of the sport’s most important motorcycles winning one of the world’s most important races?
You can see Marcelo’s Marianna replica and Robert Carter’s original artwork in the MotoBarrel Room at
Doffo Winery.
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