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Ducati Panigale V4 launch: First impressions...

The choice of Valencia was quite surprising as the launch track. It’s a fairly tight technical track, maybe better suited to 600s than litre bikes. And the new V4 is actually an 1100… Ducati says they chose this capacity to give the bike a torquey delivery like the big V-twins, rather than a peakier four-cylinder feel.

That, plus the ‘Twin pulse’ layout (it’s like two 360° parallel twins arranged at 90° to each other) gives it a very ‘twin-ish’ sound and feel. Imagine the crossplane crank R1 and you’re somewhere near.

So – a 214bhp 1100 V-4, at a tight and twisty track – how does it do? Really well is the obvious answer. Ducati’s done a great job to make this monster of a bike feel really manageable, light and easy to turn. Part of that is the electronics of course - and it’s great to have the advanced traction control and ABS ready to step in should you need it.

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But the basic bike is very friendly, and in the early sessions here, I quickly got myself up to speed with the track. Brakes are predictably awesome, the new Brembo Stylema calipers and 330mm discs hauling you down from 280kph-ish with supreme ease.

We’ve got a couple more sessions this afternoon, and I’ll also be riding a trick accessorised version of the bike, with the official Akrapovic race pipe and remap adding 12bhp and saving 7kg – and with a set of Pirelli SC1 slicks spooned onto the Marchesinis. I’ll let you know how it goes later…

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