Ducati has announced the sale of all 520 replica bikes it made in celebration of its dual world title triumphs in 2022.
Ducati sold its World Championship celebration special edition Panigale V4 motorcycles, derived from the Ducati Panigale V4 S, “in just a few hours,” the Bologna brand says in a press release.
The bikes cost $63,000 USD each, and had unique features such as the signature of the appropriate rider for each version, as well as a swathe of carbon fibre pieces; while the limited production number, 260 for each version, was a nod to Ducati’s founding year, 1926.
Francesco Milicia, VP Global Sales & After Sales Ducati, said: “2022 has been an incredible year for Ducati both on the track and in the market, confirming the integration and continuous transfer of technology and expertise between production and racing that is unparalleled in the world of motorcycling.
“We thought the best way to share the successes of 2022 with the most passionate Ducatisti was to provide them with exclusive, numbered bikes, individually signed by Pecco [Bagnaia] and Álvaro [Bautista].
“At this time, when our brand is as solid as ever and projected into the future, we also wanted to pay homage to our history, recalling with both replicas the founding of Ducati, which dates back to 1926.”
The Ducati Panigale V4 S on which these replicas are based is of course a variant of the Panigale V4, and is therefore closely related to the Ducati Panigale V4 R with which Alvaro Bautista won Ducati’s first WorldSBK title in 11 years.
One week before Bautista clinched the production derivative series in Indonesia, Francesco Bagnaia took the MotoGP crown in Valencia. This was Ducati’s first since Casey Stoner’s title in 2007, and confirmed the ‘Triple Crown’ for Ducati: Teams’, Manufacturers’, and Riders’ champions.
Of course, while Bautista’s WorldSBK-spec V4 R is derived from the road-going version of that bike, that road-going version has its roots in MotoGP, and the Desmosedici with which Bagnaia won the MotoGP crown.
Ducati’s 2022 was the (arguably belated) reward for a design and engineering philosophy which was established in 2014 with the arrival of Gigi Dall’Igna, and is one which has not (yet) been adopted by other manufacturers.
The creativity with which Dall’Igna allows his engineering department to work allows for the development of ingenious solutions such as the ride height devices and aerodynamics which now dominate MotoGP, and are creeping into Superbike racing as a result of Ducati’s commitment to performance-focused exclusivity in its production bikes.
