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More spy shots of Ducati's 2018 Panigale V4

Panigale V4 1100 Revealed

Ducati officially released its new V4 superbike engine this week. And at the same time, more pics of the whole bike appeared online, sat on an unassuming bike lift in a factory garage.

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We’ve spoken about the new engine a fair bit already - it’s called the Desmosedici Stradale, and is based on the Desmosedici MotoGP engine – albeit with a larger 1,103cc capacity. All the better to beat those pesky Jap litre bikes of course – but they’ll need a sub-litre version for racing in WSB and BSB, which is apparently in ‘advanced development’.

At the same time though, these pics of an apparently-final V4 superbike appeared online too. It’s the same bike as we saw in the spy pics from a pit garage earlier this week, this time parked up on a bike lift in what looks like a Ducati factory workshop – there are Ducati logos on the yellow parts crates, while the tool chests and bike lifts are all Italian industrial kit, rather than small dealership stuff. There’s also a couple of other Ducatis in the background – a 959 Panigale in white and some 848 panels kicking about.

Luckily, there’s much more detail visible on the bike too. The name on the fairing is ‘Panigale V4 S’, which makes sense. There’s deffo a single-sided swingarm, scotching rumours of a double-sided arm which were doing the rounds online.

The front fairing looks a bit odd around the headlight area, like there are bigger air intakes there. That, together with the large side fairing cutouts perhaps suggesting the new V4 will need more cooling air than the big twins.

Suspension and brakes is top spec – electronic adjustable Öhlins shock and forks, plus superbike Brembo calipers up front. Ducati claims the V4 engine is very much intended to be used as a stressed member in the final design – it’s strong enough to replace much of what a traditional ‘frame’ would do, and that’s evident; there’s very little in the way of visible frame elements, just the two alloy castings bolted to the rear cylinder head, with the subframe bolted onto the same area.

The overall look, though, is pretty much ‘as you were’ compared with the current superbike – are we the only ones seeing a bit of 939 Supersport in there too. The tail unit looks a bit ropey mind…

Ducati’s officially launching the bike at Milan in early November, so we’ll find out more then, including, hopefully, some more dirt on the 999cc race engine…

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