Ducati V4 R Test Bike Spotted

Ducati is all ready to enter their flagship superbike, the Panigale V4, into motor racing, as evidenced by spy shots of the V4 R are surfacing on the internet. The old V-twin powerplant was struggling to keep pace with its four-cylinder rivals and thus, the current V4 mill is primed to take on the rest of the competition.

That said, Ducati would have had to rework a bit on the engine front to comply with WSBK regulations. The V4 motor has an engine capacity of 1103cc, but to comply with the rulebook it has to be under 1000cc. We guess Ducati will also kit it with lightweight performance engine components as we can see the prototype to be running with a dry clutch, fit for racing purposes.

While the chassis looks to be the same as the stock bike, the rear sub-frame has undergone some serious revision. The subframe is shorter and gets rid of the unnecessary items. The fairing design too has seen a few modifications as it gets extra cutouts which are set slightly more forward on the fairing than on the V4. These might be done to aid aerodynamics and provide better heat dissipation. Since the usage of winglets is allowed in WSBK from the next season onwards, Ducati would have made sure to make provisions ready for the same.

The prototype bike is also running on forged magnesium Marchesini M9RS rims while the brilliant Brembo Stylema callipers are retained.

Ducati might debut the V4 R race bike at the British Superbike round at Brands Hatch, with test rider Michele Pirro taking it out for a few demonstration laps. We expect to see this homologation special V4 R to be shown to the public during Ducati’s world premier of their 2019 lineup of motorcycles on November 4, two days prior to EICMA 2018.

Image courtesy Motorcycle.com