South, a reference to the geographical location. Garage, the physical identity, where dreams come true and passion is explored and becomes reality. Café, the Café Racer Culture and all it stands for. Combined and you have South Garage Café, established in 2008 and located in the south of Italy.
The 2011 Motor Bike Expo in Verona saw the presentation under the name ‘South Garage Motorcycles’ of this unique Café Racer Meravigliosa Creatura (Wonderful Creature in English) based on a Ducati 749.
To give you a little background, the Ducati 749 is a 90-degree L Twin Desmodromic valve actuated engine sport bike. Designed by Pierre Terblanche, the 749 was available as the 749, 749 Dark, 749S, and 749R. It shared many of its parts with the 999, with a few exceptions.
Only a handful of custom motorbike builders around the world have dared to customize a Ducati 749 and one of them is South Garage. The reason being it is considered unusual, difficult and not easily suited to this type of customization.
The transformation of the stock Ducati 749 to Meravigliosa Creatura is astonishing. The guys at South Garage have spent numerous hours of intensive labor to make this wonderful creature! To achieve the minimalist design the stock bike was stripped down naked exposing the raw mechanicals. At the rear Meravigliosa Creatura features a narrow Café Racer tail, which forms a single line with the fuel tank.
At the front Meravigliosa Creatura features classic circular shaped headlight while the rear houses a vintage Cafe Racer looking stop tail light. Our personal favorite is that fuel tank and the 2-in-1 exhaust. Considering the base for this build and looking at the finished result, the boys from South Garage have proved thatDucati 749 can be customized with a result as good as their Meravigliosa Creatura.
Last but not least the captivating paint job, which was completed by Ivan Design. Meravigliosa Creatura is painted in silver, candy red and finished with the vintage Café Racer logo on the tail.
South Garage is another custom workshop we will be keeping a close eye on!
