Ducati, the singular moto manufacturer with a rabid fan base and a hallowed history, was in a bit of a situation when design boss Andrea Amato joined the company a decade ago. Racing has long been central to the brand’s identity, but in 2013, Ducati achieved zero wins in MotoGP and a worst-ever season in World Superbike. How could the once-hot manufacturer return to greatness?
The answer, in short, was to engineer race bikes that could more easily whomp the competition, requiring those high-strung machines to be more user-friendly to a wider array of racers. The shift eventually shoved the Italian brand back into the winner’s circle and restored its hard-fought reputation. Record street bike sales naturally followed, putting the brand back on track by validating the age-old “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” mantra.
Fast-forward to modern day, and the newest Ducati Panigale V4—the seventh generation in a line of superbikes that dates back to the 1980s-era 851—bears the burden of upholding Ducati’s status as one of the world’s most desirable nameplates.
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At the bike’s recent unveiling on a balmy evening in Misano, Italy, design boss Andrea Amato told me that the just-unveiled model pays stylistic homage to the mythical 916 model (1994–1998), arguably one of the most beautiful motorcycles of all time. Sure, there are subtle nods to the late, great superbike in the new Panigale V4—a lightened nose proportion, an air intake smack in the middle of the fairing, and a few other key bits and bobs the cognoscenti will geek out over.
Noteworthy modern touches include a new pair of winglets up front, which are designed to neutralize aerodynamics at high speeds. The extensions have a weirdly organic look to them (in contrast to the sharper, more linear-looking wings Ducati has used in the past). But the real differentiator here is how they mate seamlessly to the fairing in a series of complex curves.
The execution reflects Ducati’s better-than-ever attention to detail, and the elevated resources that come with being a part of the Audi family beneath the Volkswagen umbrella. “People usually think pure beauty cannot be super functional or perform at a high level,” Amato says. “I strongly believe the opposite.” That echoes a sentiment once expressed by none other than Enzo Ferrari.
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Of course, the new Panigale benefits from performance upgrades intended to make it blaze around a racetrack quicker than ever. These mods include a revised frame; a slightly lighter, incrementally more powerful 1,103cc V4 engine (that now puts out 209 horsepower stateside and a heady 216 hp in Euro spec); a new 6.9-inch digital dashboard; a pro-level data logger that records 70 performance parameters; and the first-ever implementation of Brembo’s trick new Hypure brakes.
The Panigale’s ergonomics have been tweaked to make it easier to move around the bike and extract speed on racetracks. Think—hanging off better, leaning harder, and generally doing your baddest-ass impersonation of a podium-placing MotoGP rider.
Ducatisti diehards will no doubt celebrate in the likely event that the competition versions of their latest superbike perform well at World Superbike races. However, the new Panigale’s hottest topic isn’t its race-worthiness, but rather one mechanical feature: the swing arm. Why the fixation with a seemingly trivial piece of hardware that attaches the rear wheel to the frame? Ducati has defiantly embraced a single-sided swing arm design for the better part of 30 years. The look is alluring, cradling one side of the rear wheel while displaying the other without encumbrance or visual blockage.
The trouble with looking cool is that the design is typically heavier and less robust than a boring old dual-sided swing arm—which is why Ducati engineers finally relented by incorporating a dual swing arm. The swing arm’s trick “hollow symmetrical” design provides a peekaboo view of the wheel, but isn’t quite as visually radical as a single-sided design. The new swing arm looks somewhat novel, but so far the die-hards have not been having it, condemning the more functional form as the beginning of the end of Ducati’s unapologetic style.
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There’s a good chance the latest Ducati Panigale V4 will be remembered more for being a departure from styling tradition than for its outright speed, or greater rideability that will likely help it win more races. Still, at the end of the day, as long as the Italian bike maker keeps crossing the finish line ahead of its competitors, Ducatisti will find it increasingly hard to grumble about the buzzkill of an unsexy swing arm.
