(engine revving)
- This is one of the most expensive motorcycles
you can buy today.
It costs, $40,000.
That's a lot of dough for a motorcycle.
So why is this one right here so expensive?
Let me give you a little hint.
Come over here.
It says Ducati on it.
But it's more than just the name.
In this video, we're going to take a look
at what they've done to make this bike so expensive
yet worth every friggin' penny.
We're about to go single-sided swingarm
to carbon fiber winglets, bumper-to-bumper
on this Ducati Panigale V4 R.
Vroom, vroom, where my 12 o'clock boys at, baby?
(upbeat music)
Hey guys, before we get into this week's episode,
I wanna thank Raycon for sponsoring Bumper to Bumper,
these things are so great.
I can put them in at the office while I'm working
they're slim enough that they fit underneath the helmet
so when I'm at the track I can listen to music.
They're absolutely amazing.
I love them so, so much and I can pop them in,
when the old Mrs. is giving me the business
and I don't wanna listen to her.
So that's just an added bonus.
They have amazing sound quality
and they're about half the price
of those other premium earbuds.
Their latest model is the E25, and it's their best one yet.
Six hours of play time, seamless Bluetooth pairing,
more bass, and a slim compact design that gives you
that good, sweet, noise isolating fit.
They also come in some new cool colors.
Although I like the black ones because they match
the color of my motorcycle, so...
Look out, look how just soft and smooth these suckers
just slide right on into my ear holes.
It's like (vocalizing) flush, which is great,
coz when you put a helmet on,
they don't like rip your friggin' ears off.
So go to buyraycon.com/bumper
or click the link in the description
to get 15% off your order.
Thank you guys for supporting the brands
that support us here at Donut.
It really helps us out and keeps us making sweet vids
like this one.
(upbeat music)
First off, before we dive into this bike,
I'd like to introduce myself, I'm Jeremiah.
I'm a rider here at Donut.
One of the many motorcycle lovers we have on the crew here.
So, why does the name carry so much clout?
Well for one, it symbolizes over 100 years
of racing and winning, and all the development
and technology that comes along with winning.
What wins on Sunday, sells on Monday and Ducati,
they do a lot of winning.
They've won 14 World Superbike titles.
That's more than any other manufacturer combined
and every single one of those championship-winning bikes,
including this one right here,
share one key piece of technology.
(upbeat music)
This
This is what's called a desmodromic engine,
and Ducati designed it specifically so that their bikes
can rev to higher RPM.
Your average car, take a Civic, for example,
has a red line of 6500 RPM and most big dog street bikes
like your leader bikes, they rev up to 12000 RPMs
before hitting their red line.
So why do motorcycles
have such a higher RPM range than cars?
Think of it like a bald eagle
versus a little baby hummingbird, okay?
The bald eagle has larger wings that it needs to flap less
to generate more power.
Whereas the hummingbird's small little wings,
they need to flap really fast and generate lift.
So, typically bikes have to have higher rev range
to make up for their smaller displacement.
Now, how much does this bike rev to?
16,500 RPMs.
that's 275 revolutions of the crankshaft every second.
Imagine this.
(shaking)
Now that's at least two times as fast as what I just did.
(laughs)
But there's a reason most engines don't rev that high.
It's because it's really hard to do
without the engine blowing up.
Most engines using overhead valve design
that uses a cam to open the valve and a spring to close it.
And back in the day, the metal used in those valve springs,
they couldn't withstand the stresses of higher RPMs.
A high-revving motor will be chugging along
so fast that the spring, it wouldn't have time
to close the valve.
And when that happens, the piston smacks the valve,
and your engine goes kaboom (exploding).
It's not fun.
Enter the desmodromic engine.
See what made Ducati so unique was they completely bailed
on using springs to close the valves.
Instead, the desmo system replaced those springs
with cam loads and collars.
It forcibly pulls the valve close, perfectly timed
with the rotation of the crankshaft.
Now today, spring technology has improved
to the point where desmo tech isn't really necessary.
But Ducati still insist on using it
because they're proud of their heritage.
It was incorporated into the company street bike,
way back in 1968, and has been using every model since 1980,
including this engine, right here.
But there's something else that makes this engine,
very, very special.
(upbeat music)
This engine is the Panigale V4.
Now, Ducati is known for using their famous L-twin engine
developed all the way back in the '70s.
But this isn't any basic Ducati.
This engine was born on the racetrack,
specifically to win MotoGP races.
Now MotoGP is the highest form of motorcycle racing.
It's the F1 of two wheels.
All the bikes are custom-built prototypes
and they cost millions of dollars to make.
Ducati took some of the smartest minds and engineers
from their Ducati Corse team to develop this high revving,
998 CC V4.
Tacked onto this motor, is a signature Ducati dry clutch.
Now dry clutch has clutch plates that aren't bathed
in engine oil.
Those are wet clutches, mmmmh.
Now the advantage of a dry clutch is that
it improves power delivery to the rear wheels.
It reduces drag on the engine and helps
keep the engine oil cleaner, but it's friggin' loud.
I mean, it sounds like rocks inside a dryer.
(motor running)
The V4 motor paired with a dry clutch
and all the cool engine bits, helps this bike produce,
listen up, 221 horsepower.
On a motorcycle!
A 2020 Mazda Miata makes 181 horsepower
and it weighs 2,329 pounds.
This bike?
It only weighs 379 pounds, and it still manages
to make over 30 horsepower more.
(upbeat music)
And if you wanna shell out even a couple more dineros,
$5,000 to be exact, you can slap on
a full titanium Akrapovic race exhaust.
And that pushes this thing to 234 horsepower.
234 horsepower on a thing that's smaller
than an actual horse.
So aside from the engine,
what other trickle-down goodies does V4 R get?
Well, it gets a bunch of lightweight tech.
And the lighter you are, the easier it is
for you to go from 180 miles an hour to zero miles an hour.
Now the fairings, they're made of carbon fiber
covered in this really sweet, sexy, Ducati red.
Tacked on these fairings, are winglets.
And I'm not talking about a night out
with the boys at B-Dubs.
And the winglets, on a production bike are not common.
The cool thing about these, is Ducati used these exact ones
in their 2016 MotoGP bike.
This MotoGP technology that you can buy, which is crazy.
(upbeat music)
The reason they even use these wings,
is that they create downforce at the front,
keeping the bike as stable as possible
during intense braking.
And when accelerating, they help keep the bike down.
These guys can generate up to 66 pounds of downforce
at 168 miles an hour.
Now the downside of winglets, is that they create dirty air,
and we're not talking about dudes farting in front of you,
crop dusting, that's not what I'm talking about.
Dirty air is the turbulent air that's coming
off the lead bike and straight on to the chase bike.
And that's not good if you're in second place,
trying to catch up.
But lucky for you, you're not racing MotoGP.
So you can create as much dirty air with these bad boys
when you're carving through the canyons,
ripping down the highway, giving someone the bird
as you're passing by a residential street.
Freaking dirty air boys.
(upbeat music)
Now down here we have the latest in Brembo technology.
They're good, they bite hard,
and they'll make you do a stoppie in no time flat.
(upbeat music)
So this V4 R is fast as frig and has the means
to stop on a dime, but how do you wrangle
a 221 horsepower beast?
First, this epic V4 engine spins in a counter direction
to that of the wheels.
Wheels spin this way, and the crank spins this way.
And because of that, it's easier for you
to change directions.
You're not fighting the gyroscopic effect
of the wheels as much because it's partially compensated
by the crank, which is pretty friggin' sick.
(upbeat music)
You might have also noticed that there's no license plate
on this thing and that's because Ducati
will ship you this bike with those things removed
because this is a friggin' race bike.
(upbeat music)
Now the V4 R also uses Ducati's classic,
single-sided swingarm.
It was originally designed to speed up pit stops
in racing back in the 1916 days,
and is now a staple Ducati bike feature.
It looks freaking sick.
I love single-sided swingarms
and this one is beautiful.
(upbeat music)
Now I think it's a good time for me to put a GoPro
in my mouth and hop on this Italian stallion.
- Good? - Yep.
- Mmmh, feels good.
It's soft like leather.(laughs)
(upbeat music)
Now there's two things
that really helped this bike handle like a dream.
First, the suspension components.
They come from the best in the biz, and that's Ohlins.
All the Ohlins bits come together
to give the rider the best control money can buy.
Second, the front of the V4 R is three inches wider
than the non-race version of the bike.
That, along with all the vents and intakes
and elements designed with the helps
of aerospace engineering tech, help reduce the amount
of turbulence the rider brings to the table.
(upbeat music)
Take a look at this screen.
Instead of traditional gauges,
they have this high-definition, high-contrast,
high-brightness display.
It's freaking amazing.
Jammed into the screen, you can access all your options,
helping you ride like a pro.
Even if you're a little squid.
(engine revs)
It's got traction control, which we're gonna turn off
in a little bit, because we're gonna lay down
a sweet burnie and we're not going to need it.
It's got slide control,
which helps prevent doing something like this.
(engine running)
(scraping)
It's got Ducati Power Launch,
which is essentially launch control,
allows the rider to only worry about clutch release
as electronics take care of the revs
and help the V4R take off the line as fast as possible.
That's good, when you're racing.
(upbeat music)
This bike also has three rider modes.
It's got street, it's got sport and it's got race mode.
Because this is a race bike,
it has a built-in lap timer and possibly my favorite feature
on the bike, it's got a pit limiter.
Now all racers require that when a race bike
enters the pits, they must be at a specific speed limit.
And when you're all worked up with adrenaline,
that's kinda tough to do.
So Ducati made it easy.
You push this button right here and it limits the speed
at which you can go, it's friggin' trick.
(upbeat music)
Now the reason this bike exists as a model
that you can buy off the showroom floor
is because of World Superbike racing.
Now, World Superbike racing is one step below MotoGP.
Instead of using prototypes,
World Superbike rules require you use production bikes
as this homologation special.
Homologation means that a manufacturer
has to sell a set number of production models to the public,
prior to using them to go racing.
It's the same reason why you are able
to buy a Group B Lancia Delta.
Well not you, not me, but you know what I'm saying.
(upbeat music)
So $40,000 for a race motorcycle that's street legal
might seem like an outrageous price.
I mean, it's a lot of money.
But in this case, it's justified.
Now if you have 40K, you can go out
and get 180 mile per hour bike,
or you can go by 3 Series Convertible,
and be a turkey.
Which one are you gonna do?
(upbeat music)
(engine revving)
- That's sick.
(laughing)
We wanna thank Ducati for dropping off this bike,
it is seriously one of the sickest motorcycles
I've ever seen in person, it's amazing.
So we wanna thank them.
Follow Donut at Donut Media.
Follow me at Jeremiah Burton.
Thanks guys, bye for now.
(upbeat music)