FIRST TEST PANIGALE V4R
WSB racer for the road tested
the 1100’s. Fairing cheeks are wider and chunkier side panels have extra cooling louvres. You can’t see the dry clutch, so fitting an open cover for the full ‘jangle’ is a must. Carbon trinkets and fancy levers are conspicuously absent; every penny you pay is for the go, not show.
Its partial aluminium frame is the same as the 1100’s (painted black), but there are big cut-outs to give it more flex and feel at full lean, though our pre-production test bikes ran standard frames, as the new ones weren’t ready in time. Clocks, lacquered aluminium tank shape and top yoke are the same as the 1100’s, as are the wide, low-slung clip-ons and spacious ergonomics, but there are subtle differences. Öhlins fork tops aren’t sprouting semi-active damping wires and the screen is taller. There’s more red in view, with the wider plastics and two carbon blades jutting out.
Ducati gives you wings
Valia says the wings calm highspeed wheelies so much you can run less anti-wheelie control and with fewer electronics interfering you have more chance to use that power. But you still have to rely on the V4 R’s fabulous anti-wheelie control or brush the back brake to control the front wheel out of slower corners. The wings also help pin the front under braking and turn-in at lower speeds, but Valia reckons they’re most useful through faster turns like Jerez’s turns 11 and 12.
It’s hard to single out what the wings are doing, though. Speaking to Davies, even he’s unsure on where the wings offer the most benefit. It takes just a few corners to realise all the V4 R wants to do is get to full lean as fast as possible and headbutt every apex with little rider input. Get back on the throttle and the Ducati turns even tighter, thanks to its counter-rotating crank.
The V4 R has unflappable highspeed stability and rails into corners faster than you dare push on a bike costing £35k. Is it the wings, antiwheelie, tyre grip, chassis poise or the clever crank? I suspect it’s all of it, but the Ducati still pulls huge wheelies out of the back straight’s exit, so the wings only do so much.
Refined electronics
According to Valia, new traction and slide control settings help the rear tyre track more smoothly on the throttle through turns, and the electronics quickly deliver confidence. Power doesn’t cut audibly when the TC chimes in, like a BMW HP4 Race, it’s more a stuttering you feel as the rear gently breaks traction, like sitting down in bubble wrap underpants.
What you’d wish for?
Having four sessions on one of the most potent road-going superbikes ever built on slicks, is a dream, but I’m glad it’s over. It might be everything I’d hoped for from a 231bhp superbike, but I wouldn’t have the strength to carry on. I pat the V4 R, full of awe, but I’ll leave it to the professionals next time.
‘The V4 R has unflappable highspeed stability’