Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1164303
25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DUCATI 916 P90 Feature THE MODERN INCARNATION The recent WorldSBK round at Laguna Seca marked a special occasion for Ducati, as it was the scene in which they officially celebrated the 25th milestone of the 916 by unveiling the Ducati Panigale V4 25°Anniversario. Limited to 500 editions worldwide, the 916 Anniversario gets a few chang- es over a standard V4 S including the front frame of the V4 R, a racing-style dry clutch, track specific electronics in the Ducati Quick Shift EVO 2 for aggressive gear shifts, and "predictive" Ducati Traction Control EVO 2. There's also forged magnesium Marchesini Racing wheels, a titanium Akrapovic racing exhaust, and a host of carbon fiber and billet aluminum add-ons, in- cluding the front and rear mudguards, heel guards and swingarm cover. To top it all off, you also get a stunning Fogarty-replica paint scheme that mimics the Briton's final WorldSBK title-winning 996 of 1999. I was lucky enough to get four laps at Laguna Seca on the Panigale V4 25°Anniversario as part of this feature. This was a quick test, for sure, but I wasn't going to argue as I was one of the lucky few that were given the keys by Ducati's International Product Com- munications manager, Giulio Fabbri. The Panigale V4 25°Anniversario has that rocking V4 from the standard Panigale V4 S that we tested back in 2018, so the huge power on offer was no great surprise, but the extra stiff- ness thanks to the Panigale V4 R front frame was certainly apparent. The Panigale V4 25°Anniversario was also a little more nimble com- pared to what I remembered when I tested the V4 S back in Valencia, making the quick direction changes in places like the Corkscrew a little easier than they would have been. The Panigale V4 25°Anniversario is a stunningly prepared machine, and given the importance of the date, I'd expect these things to be already all sold. The four laps I had were over in a flash, but the ride was a memorable one. The Panigale V4 25th Anniversario is a stunning rolling tribute to the original 916. The Panigale V4 25th Anniversario is flanked by the Ducati WorldSBK factory race machines of Alvaro Bautista (19) and Chaz Davies (7), who wore a special retro livery for the Laguna Seca weekend. Tamburini's 1994 916 chas- sis design was 20mm shorter in wheelbase than the 888 at 1410mm (55.5 in.) with a 49/51 percent front/rear weight bias, and one of its trademark design features was the single-sided swingarm. Originally, Ducati had plans for the 916 to finally capture the Bol d'Or 24 Hour and Suzuka 8 Hours race wins, and thus a single-sided unit would prove better for fast wheel changes. Honda held the patent for single-sided swingarms with the ELF 500; thus, the Ducati design had to be sufficiently different to avoid encroach- ing on Honda's property. The swingarm was made from cast aluminum, with the pushrod suspension linkage design with spherical bearings for the Showa shock created by a cer- tain Claudio Domenicali, now CEO of Ducati. Showa also provided the front suspension with fully adjustable, 43mm inverted forks, with brakes provided by Brembo in their "Gold Series" P4 four-piston calipers up front