yeah, prior owner swapped a bunch of parts to make it lighter, so it's very very flickable. and it's the old-style engine case, so it's smaller (clutch slave on the right side)
point is, the 750 with some head work can do much better. it has a good crank x piston geometry
In my experience it takes about $2,500 to $3,000 to make a 92-98 750 produce the same level of horsepower that a stock 91-98 900 does, without boring or stroking the motor. That's high compression pistons, flat slide Keihin CR carbs, porting and polishing the heads, 3-angle valve job, open airbox, and free flowing exhaust.
The 99-06 800 makes almost the same power as the 91-98 900 does, and putting in the Ducati performance ECU and a free flowing exhaust puts it almost exactly at the same power output (72-74hp) as the 900. [1]
My recommendation to someone with a 750 who either just feels that they need (or simply want) more power, or who has actually reached the point on the racetrack where they can't go any faster with the 750 (and trust me, you can go DAMN fast on the racetrack with 55-57 horsepower) would be to try riding a 900 BEFORE spending the money to hop up the 750 ... the 900 will almost assuredly always be worth more in the marketplace than the 750, where the money spent on hopping up the 750 will almost certainly have to be amortized by riding enjoyment, because it will be really hard to find someone willing to pay more than pennies on the dollar for those performance enhancements.
I just went through the same calculations for my ex-Moto-ST racebike 800SS in converting it to a trackbike, and decided to just go with a 1000SS stock motor instead of hopping up the 800SS engine.
[1] However, part of the flickability of the 600, 620, 695, 750 and 800-engined bikes is the lower crank/flywheel mass of those engines, and even getting the extra horsepower of a 900/1000/1100 version is goig to detract from that flickability. The difference has been very noticeable on every single examnple I've ridden, and I have owned and ridden a LOT of 2-valvers, both on the track and on the street. There is a lot to be said for the feeling of engine lightness along with chassis lightness. It's a lot like the difference in feel between a dual-disk front end on the track and a well set-up single disk front end - you have to feel it to believe it.
