New Ducati Superleggera
The new Ducati Superleggera V4 has rolled off the drawing board and into action!
Ducati lovers out there are opening their eyes wide to a nice new view, the Ducati SuperleggeraV4.
The Borgo Panigale production line has delivered it's new baby, the first of only 500 Superleggera V4 Ducati motorcycles and the proud owner has been invited to Borgo Panigale to meet Ducati's CEO Claudio Domenicali and receive the brand new bike.
The dream machine aspect of this motorcycle was really the brief – to try to create a motorcycle with a new development process which Ducati claims proved to be more like aeronautics than motorcycle design! It sports sexy biplane winglets like Ducati's MotoGP bikes which apparently create downforce and help prevent wheelies – but really are they to make the bike look mean, moody and magnificent.
Stefano Strappazzon, the Superleggera V4 Project Coordinator says of the bike:
“With the Superleggera V4 we were able to unleash our creativity in terms of technical solutions, materials and processes with the goal of pushing the limits for every specification and achieving maximum performance. It’s a process similar to what Ducati Corse does for MotoGP, but at the end of the project we have to ensure absolute reliability for the life of the bike, not just for the current racing season. You could almost say that the Superleggera V4 is a MotoGP with mirrors and a number plate holder”.
Top Of The Range
This is meant to be a state of the art, top of the range motorcycle, with only 500 produced and all sold numbered, with a certificate of authenticity for each of the 500 bikes and with a price tag to match. 'Superlegerra' means lightweight in Italian and this is a feature which Ducati has taken really seriously, the new motorcycle weighing in at just 152.2kg (dry weight), almost 23kg lighter than the standard Panigale – which is already one of the lightest superbikes in production. They have achieved the super light weight with carbon fibre on the frame, the swingarm, the wheels and the bodywork. With aluminium, magnesium and titanium used elsewhere to keep the weight off – there's no lockdown lard on this bike! It also has the most powerful Ducati engine to date with 998cc V4 engine bashing out 234 PS and 119Nm of torque at its peak.
Ducati's claim for the Superlegerra is that it has the best power-to-weight ratio of any current production bike.
Ducati posits that motorcycles like this serve a dual function, part innovation projects, producing unique machines but also creating new methods of doing things and improvements, made on the drawing board of bikes like the Superleggera V4, which can be transferred to all their other motorcycles.
In Ducati's own words:
“Projects like the Superleggera V4 are demonstration projects, where we show what we can do. But they are also important moments of innovation for the company. Using tests on composite materials we define processes that have a positive influence on the entire company’s know-how.”
So have you ordered yours yet? If not, sadly, you may be too late hey ho, but look on the bright side, you have saved yourself a few bob, it is the most expensive Ducati out there! What do you think – worth the money? Let us know at
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