PANIGALE BRINGS OUT DEVIL IN YOU

If the Panigale was a woman, it would be wearing a tight red dress and carrying a whip.

In other words, you know you’re in for the time of your life, and possibly a painful but happy death.

Having said that, furiously fast though this Ducati is, the safety systems of cornering ABS, slide control, wheelie control and traction control are so good that you’d need to be a complete idiot to come a cropper. Which leaves you free to enjoy that time of your life, from the moment you walk up to the bike and realise just how utterly stunning it is.

Even the full colour TFT dash is a happy marriage of form and function – a work of art which shows you everything you need to know at a glance.

Start it up and the Panigale sounds sexy and angry.

I kicked off in Street mode just to get used to it before venturing into Sport and Race, but even in the most, er, gentle of the three modes, acceleration is phenomenal, but smooth and linear all the way from 3,000rpm to the redline at 14,500rpm.

The quickshifter is a work of genius, allowing you to sneak effortlessly up through the slick six-speed gearbox, and on the way down the autoblipper gives you a little comforting hug of throttle to keep things smooth heading into bends. Inspired.

The brakes are as brutal and linear as the acceleration, and handling is so light and precise that you only have to think about where you’re going, and you’re there.

Right, time for a deep breath and a change in modes with the simple toggle switch on the left bar, and if I thought the acceleration was mind-bending in Street mode, I was left laughing in my helmet at how ridiculous it was in Sport and then Race mode.

After 10 minutes my neck was two inches shorter, my arms were three inches longer and my grin was four inches wider. Incredible. And completely mad, but the sort of madness you could quite happily live with, especially when you open the garage door every morning and drink in the view.

Now, if I sold the house and the cat, I could just about manage a nice PCP deal and have enough left over for a can of Whiskas to keep him quiet while I put him on ebay. Sorted. ■■Test bike supplied by Millsport Motorcycles, millsport motorcycles.com. Ducati Panigale V4

1,103cc liquid-cooled V4 211bhp @ 13,000rpm

91.5lb ft @ 10,000rpm red, red/ white/green