EFFORTLESS EXTREMES
The new Ducati Panigale V4 is about as close to a MotoGP machine as a mass-produced road bike can get. And here’s the best bit: it’s rider-friendly too.
This bike threatened to be seriously intimidating, especially round the Circuit de Valencia. The Panigale V4 kicks out a phenomenal 211bhp and weighs just 195kg fully fuelled. The Circuit Ricardo Tormo launch venue mostly comprises tight, second-gear turns – potentially a handful for such a ferociously powerful machine.
So on just my second lap of the Spanish track, it’s a great feeling to crank through the turn six Angel Nieto left-hander onto the back straight, open the throttle and hold on tight as the Ducati leaps forward, lifts its front wheel slightly and runs out towards the kerb… while remaining superbly precise, controllable and a total blast to ride, just as it has through the last few bends.
The Panigale V4 is stupendously quick and capable and there was never much doubt that it would be both those things. But what impressed me more, even on those first few laps of Valencia, was how effortless and rider-friendly it was.
That shouldn’t have been a surprise because, when you’re aboard a super-light bike that puts over
200bhp through its rear tyre’s palm-of-the-hand-size contact patch, the key to lapping fast isn’t how much power you have, but how well you can use it. And it was the V4 layout’s advantage in this respect, rather than pure horsepower potential, that prompted Ducati to switch from its traditional V-twins.
MOTOGP INSPIRED
The new 1103cc V4 unit is 17bhp more powerful than its 1298cc Panigale V-twin predecessor. More importantly, the 16-valve desmo V4 shares its
81mm bore size, combustion chamber shape and contra-rotating crankshaft design with the works Desmosedici that won six MotoGP races last year.
Similarly, the chassis was designed using the knowledge that Ducati has gained in more than a decade of MotoGP competition. In place of the V-twin’s monocoque chassis, the V4 uses a cast aluminium ‘front frame’ that connects headstock to rear engine mounts and has been fine-tuned to give the optimum levels of stiffness in all directions, largely so that at high lean angles the chassis can help the suspension absorb bumps and transmit feedback.