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Ducati Panigale V4 Superleggera - Barely Road Legal

Carbon-fibre, a material so light, puts titanium to shame. Initially used in aerospace only, this 6th element of the periodic table has made it into the auto industry and made motorcycles lighter ever since. Ducati, has taken it a little too seriously here.

169kgs, 224HP, a redline of 16,000rpm. If these number aren’t manic, please tell me what is? The Panigale V4R was ludicrously fast, but Ducati has taken that to cloud 9 here. Feast your eyes to the Panigale V4 Superleggera. Let me put it out there first: 152kgs, 224Hp, full carbon construction and a price tag of €100,000. Let’s dig into it!

 The heart is the same as the V4R, a 998cc 90º V4 producing a stomping 224Hp, that’s 21Hp less than a Skoda Octavia VRS makes! But Ducati throws in an Akrapovic race-only exhaust for free that drops weight by 6 kilos and bumps power up to 234Hp. Bet you Skoda can’t do that for free! The V4R’s engine does loose a little weight in-order to enter the Superleggera territory. Lighter camshafts, gearshift drum and extensive use of titanium. Yes, it retains the dry-clutch from the V4R resulting in minimum power loss!

Ducati claims, the V4 Superleggera has the world’s first Carbon-Fibre frame, sub-frame and swingarm setup, saving 7.7kgs from the chassis alone! The body work again is entirely made up of carbon fibre too. Mad scientists at Ducati got so nit-picky about weight savings that they reworked the already lightweight Ohlins TTX36 monoshock, adding a titanium spring along with top-spec 43mm Ohlins NPX 25/30 forks.  Talking about brakes, it gets Brembo Stylema R calipers mated to Brembo’s MCS 19.21 master cylinder biting into 330mm rotors in the front and 245mm rotor in the back. I wonder why the Brembo GP4RX Calipers didn’t make it to this bike.

The winglets had to be a different segment as there is a bit to talk about them. These are the same from Desmo Dovi’s 2016 GP bike that produce 50 kilos of downforce at 270kph! You sure need it considering the weight of this motorcycle. Yes, Ducati could have used the 2020 GP bike winglets, but the company claims that the winglets from the 2016 motorcycle were far more effective, but due to stringent Moto GP laws, they had to revise them the year after. Hence, they made their way to the road bike!

The electronics package as the same as the V4R with a 6-axis IMU, anti-wheelie, launch control, cornering ABS, traction control, engine braking control and a bi-directional quick shifter. The 3 riding modes are rather unique A mode: Max power and ABS active on the front wheel only. In short- Valia Mode

B mode: Max power with the entire electronic suite to save you in case you get too excited on the bike. In short: The mode you’d use to feel like Valia

Sport mode: Full power along with the supercomputer modulating throttle, torque and engine response to make sure you’re alive riding in slippery conditions.

Other than all of this, the wheelbase is 11mm longer to keep the bike from not popping wheelies every time you whack the throttle, titanium sprockets, lightweight chain and a carbon clutch cover and off-course carbon-fibre wheels! 

Ducati says it will only make 500 of these each with a certificate of authenticity and each bike will be numbered on the yolk and key to remind you that the motorcycle is special.

 Motorcycles have come a long way, from tiny 25cc ponies to such lunatic 1000cc stallions. Before the electric saga makes us go all gaga, motorcycles like these just put a smile on your face. Even if one can’t afford it, just looking at it makes their day. Ducati, please never shift to electric’s (Although they will eventually).

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