Overview
The Ducati Panigale V4 is a sport bike with a desmodromic 90° V4 engine introduced by Ducati in 2018 as the successor to the V-twin engined 1299. A smaller engine displacement version complies with the Superbike category competition regulations which state "Over 750 cc up to 1000 cc" for three and four cylinder 4-stroke engines.
The name "Panigale" comes from the small manufacturing town of Borgo Panigale. The Panigale V4 uses the new Desmosedici Stradale V4 engine, derived from the Desmosedici MotoGP racing engine.
Development
Wade says the Panigale V4 is Ducati's first large-production street bike with a V4 engine, Ducati having primarily used V-twins since the 1960s, except on prototypes and racing motorcycles. They had sold a short run of 1,500 street-legal V4 Desmosedici RRs in 2007 and 2008 and made two prototypes of the Apollo V4 in 1964.
The initial development of the Panigale V4 started with the 2015 MotoGP racing engine. Ducati said the Panigale V4 was designed to combine racing features, while also being an entertaining and rideable motorcycle with a durable engine. This created the challenge of designing an engine that could keep the MotoGP engine's counter-rotating crankshaft, and large bore diameter, but have the service intervals expected on consumer motorcycles. Originally, Ducati was initially keeping the MotoGP bike's chassis, but later changed to a completely new front frame they said has less weight and more stability.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).