I actually don't think I would tbh, as a collectors bike it's not rare enough, and as a road bike, I have for quite a while been questioning the need. I've only JUST got an R1 because I'm doing mostly trackdays, and this is another 20hp up from that, so not sure how a case can be made for it on the road, unless it purely is just to enjoy owning it, which is cool, but it's a price to pay for it. If it's just about the cool of owning it, I saw a new V4S at Snetterton the other week and have to say it pops so nicely in the original red.
New superbike must be due soon. As lots of parts bins specials released. The Panigale could be considered a failure as its won nothing, so a new bike must be due. Thats Ducati's MO.
2nd, 4th & 6th and still in contention for the championship at the last round isn’t too bad. I get the point that it’s underperformed based on the brands historical racing pedigree though. Is the cost of running a Ducati putting teams off using them and thus slowing development?
2nd is nowhere. The panigale hasnt been a great race bike. When compared to those before it, which were devastatingly great race bikes. Ive no idea why. They should be.
Because they re-addressed the rules, it's that simple. Come on, even the most hardened Ducati fan has to except that by 2002 Ducati were sending engines in that would do 750km and get scrapped, versus teams like Rizla who were running about 5 engines for a whole season.
I direct you to the BSB Technical Regulations for 2021, https://www.msvracing.com/media/6215/g-5-26-bsb-v5.pdf, the Panigale V4 was the only race bike whose rev limit was restricted to the homologated bike max rpm, all the others were + 750rpm over the homologated version. All the development work carried out by Ducati Corse up to the launch of the V4R, was on an engine that revved to 17,000rpm. As the rpm restriction in both WSBK and BSB is a hard limit, a soft limit of about 15,700rpm has to be used so the V4RS is missing 1300 rpm from where it made power. The V4R so frightened the opposition, the bike was neutered by the series technical directors before it even turned a wheel. If you sense a degree a peak, damn right. Andy
WSBK hasnt been spectacular for it either. Plus its not just the V4 Pani, the V2 wasnt much good either in race trim. So, it can be considered a failure. (in comparison to its previous successful bikes)
