T-Mar: Wow! You really know your Benotto.
Based on your description, it looks like scenario 3 fits best. It has a 27.2 seatpost with a latteral oval at the bottom.
Your description of vertical tubing is spot on for the head tube and down tube. The tubing almost comes to a point which was really visible when it was the original burgundy color, but gets lost with the red.
The late 80's make sense. The chainstays and seatstays seem ovalized, but not as dramtically as the other tubes.
The guy who sold it to me said it was a criterium bicycle that was raced for a year in Belgium. But the ******** meter went off when it didn't make sense that a frame raced in B would end up in San Jose, California, where I orignally bought it. He also mentioned that it was part of a tradeshow exhibition, but again I don't what significance that means.
It just seemed like a cool frame that was ultra stable on the downhills. Slow going up, (probably was the rider?), fast coming down is my motto.
Again, ultra thanks for your information. Over the years, this bicycle has been the lenght of California, most of Western Europe and some Israel.
Again, ultra thanks for the reply.