THE POINT OF POINTLESS
Power: 218bhp Weight: 193kg Engine: 998cc V4 liquid-cooled Price: £34,995
WHEN YOU’RE FORKING out £34,995 for a Ducati homologation special, you want something to brag about down the pub. The Panigale V4 R obliges.
It does two things no machine this side of a Motogp paddock can do right now and the first comes courtesy of its manic, shortstroke ‘Stradale R’ engine: it revs to the moon and back. Red-lining at 16,000rpm in the first five gears and a stratospheric 16,500rpm in top, the bloody thing thinks it’s an axe-murdering 600. Using every one of its angry bumble bee revs takes some doing, not least because you need lots of room and when the Ducati’s tacho lights up and pulses red, like the dials in a pre-meltdown nuclear power station, it spews a brain-spinning 218bhp…or 231bhp if you’ve got the extra dosh for Ducati’s Akrapovic race pipe.
But despite its brutal appetite for shrinking straights, it’s strangely easy to hang on and that’s all down to the second trick up its sleeve: it doesn’t wheelie.
Blessed with the best road bike electronics in the business the V4 R’s anti-wheelie holds the front wheel in a high-speed float, millimetres from the tarmac, no matter how hard you accelerate, even in first. You never need to back off, clamber over the front or feather the back brake. It takes all the effort out of riding a fast lap and lets you stay on the throttle for longer.
At high speed the V4 R’s carbon fibre winglets start to do their thing, turning their aerodynamic thumbscrews down on the front Pirelli, keeping it pinned to the floor on the gas and during braking. At 160mph they produce over 30kg of downforce, which is more than a big bag of spuds pushing down on the front. That engine and those wings (and even more advanced electronics than in WSB) are why racing V4 Rs are so dominant in a straight line. Ultra-stiff and uncompromising the V4 R is a pig to ride in the corners, unless you’re an Alvaro, Chas, Scott, Josh or Tommy and pretty much pointless on the road, but as race replicas go, it’s as close as you’ll get to the real thing.
‘Pointless on the road, but as race replicas go, it’s as close as you’ll get to the real thing’