Ducati has revealed the new Panigale V4, ahead of the bike’s official global public debut at the EICMA show later on this week.
Replacing the 1299 at the top of the company’s supersport range, the new model is the first mass-produced Ducati bike to mount a four-cylinder engine derived directly from the brand’s MotoGP racer, the Desmosedici GP.
To contain the inevitable weight gain with respect to the 1299 Panigale (because of the four cylinders according to Ducati engineers) the designers have also developed an all-new frame where the engine itself has a load-bearing function.
Called “Front Frame”, and weighing just 4 kg, it’s more compact and lighter than a perimeter frame and uses the engine as a stressed chassis element; it’s also allowed the designers to create a bike that is more slender in the tank-seat merge zone.
“This choice helped making the fairing more compact as a whole. We were successful in our intent to have, in front sight, a bike that though housing a four-cylinder engine, has the same dimensions as a two-cylinder Panigale. Lightness and compactness are concepts that always accompany us, maniacally, even in the smallest details,” says Ducati design boss, Andrea Ferraresi.
Sitting on 17-inch wheels, the new bike will be coming in three variants: The standard V4; the V4 S, which gets Öhlins suspension as well as forged aluminium wheels and a lithium ion battery; and the V4 Speciale, a numbered, limited-edition version with a dedicated livery, titanium exhaust and billet aluminium components.
In terms of performance, the standard V4 manages 211 bhp at 13,000 rpm and churns out a peak torque of 91 lb-ft at 10,000 rpm. Its dry weight is listed at 198 kg.
As far as electronics go, the bike gets all mod-cons, including, among others, Ducati Traction Control, Ducati Slide Control, Ducati Wheelie Control, Ducati Power Launch, and Cornering-ABS. There are also three riding modes, namely, “Race”, “Sport”, and “Street”.
The latter can be adjusted from the brand new dashboard that sees the introduction of Ducati’s second-generation TFT display unit, whose lay-out and graphics, in turn, are said to have been inspired by those found in high-end cars.
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