VOL. 56 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 8, 2019 P109
T
he year 2019 represents a
watershed moment for Ducati
and indeed for Superbike
racing in general.
That's because for the first time
ever in the past 31 years since the
WorldSBK Championship began in
1988, there'll be no desmo V-twin
Ducati on the grid when the series
kicks off at Phillip Island in February.
Indeed, for the first time ever,
there will be no twin-cylinder
motorcycles of any kind—all the
bikes on the grid will have 1000cc
four-cylinder engines for the first
time since 2008, when the FIM
lifted the capacity ceiling for twins
to 1200cc, against 1000cc fours.
Ducati has finally ended its line
of desmo V-twin racers stretching
back to 1972, when Paul Smart
won the Imola 200, which was the
Italian manufacturer's debut race
with a 750cc desmo V-twin. Four-
teen WorldSBK titles later—the last
of them won as long ago as 2011
by Carlos Checa with a 1098R—
Ducati has now finally produced a
four-cylinder model for Superbike
racing. This is closely based on its
Desmosedici V4 MotoGP con-
tender originally introduced back
in 2002, with the latest version of
which Andrea Dovizioso has been
runner-up in the past two MotoGP
World Championships to the Marc
Márquez/Honda duo.
That Desmosedici technology
was already brought to the mass
production marketplace one year
ago with the Panigale V4 S, whose
1103cc motor, however, made it
ineligible for Superbike racing. But
at the EICMA Show in Milan last
month Ducati unveiled its first-ever
four-cylinder street-legal Superbike,
the 998cc Panigale V4 R costing
39,900 euros in Italy incl. 22%
local tax, while having an MSRP of
$40,000 here in the U.S.
WorldSBK rules impose a
40,000-euro price cap in the coun-
try of origin for homologated mod-
els (which must be fully streetlegal,
hence the V4 R is Euro 4 compli-
ant, complete with a catalyst in its
titanium stock exhaust), as well as
a minimum of 125 examples to be
built before the first race, 250 by
the end of the first year, and 500
by the end of the second year.
Hence in order to ensure enough
bikes will have been built before
WSBK 2019 kicks off Down Under
on the last weekend in February,
production will begin in January of
what is Ducati's most powerful cus-
tomer street bike yet made, deliver-
ing 218 bhp at 15,250 rpm in street-
legal guise—2250 rpm higher than
the 214 bhp, with 83 lb-ft of torque
peaking at 11,500 rpm (against a
higher 91.5 lb-ft at 10,000 rpm for
the 1103cc V4 S) from a motor rev-
limited to 16,500 rpm in top gear, or
16,000 revs in other ratios.
Stick on the Akropovic race
exhaust, and power rises to 234
bhp, on a bike weighing 425 lb with
water, oil and a full 4.2-gal alumi-
num fuel tank, or 379 lb dry (410 lb
SIMPLY THE BEST
Here it is. The
world's most
powerful and
positively
beautiful sports
motorcycle.
Drink it in.
SOLDANO AND THOMAS MACCABELLI
