Then I saw this perforated saddle on Ebay and I started searching.
It is pretty sure, that Soffatti saddles were made by Arius, the Spanish saddle manufacturer.
These Soffatti saddles were distributed with Zeus group sets, either under Soffatti or Zeus label.
I was aware of perforated saddles (for cyclocross) by Arius and Assos from the 1970s and early 1980s. Now Soffatti as added to that short list. But it is almost sure that all these saddles came from Arius and that just the labels were different. The hole patterns are exactly or nearly the same and also the plastic shells (look at the bottom of the saddle) have the same typical shape as the Arius Special Gran Carrera saddles.
The saddle says "Soffatti Professionale" on the sides and "Prestige" on the back. So, I can't say what the official model name is.
As I wrote a couple of months ago, I didn't succeed to drill my own Arius saddle. But I found this Soffatti saddle on Ebay and I managed to buy it.
In the meantime, I dyed the leather black again and it became nice and shiny with some shoe cream.
For sure, it will look nice on my Alan cyclocross bike.
Mission accomplished.
I can't tell why people ever made these perforated saddles for cyclocross. Since the saddles are very race, it must not have been an enormous success. Even in more recent years, saddle manufacturers haven't come up with perforated saddles.
Perhaps the basic idea was to get rid of water, mud and other dirt that got in and on to the riders shorts. Water and dirt could escape better and faster via the small holes in the saddle.
EDIT 25. April 2013: click here fo a comment from Hennie Stamsnijder, cyclocross ace.
