Priced in Singapore at S$289k, if you buy the limited-edition Ducati Superleggera V4 motorcycle, Ducati will let you ride its MotoGP bike

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Borgo Panigale, Italy 

Do you:
1. Dream of owning a super fast, very exclusive Italian motorcycle?
2. Also dream of riding a MotoGP bike?
3. Have S$300,000 lying around not doing anything in particular? 

If so, Ducati has the proposition of a lifetime for you in the form of its limited-edition, super-high-performance Superleggera V4 motorcycle.

The Superleggera is the ne plus ultra of Ducati’s production motorcycles, and it announced the production of the new Superleggera model on June 18, 2020.

Limited to 500 examples globally, the machine has been priced in Singapore by distributor Ducati Singapore at S$289,000 with COE, and due for delivery in September.

Since the bike is road legal, you can register and ride it legally here in Singapore, though obviously its natural habitat is flat-out on the racetrack.

You might recognise the term ‘superleggera’ – Italian for ‘super light’ – from cars, such as the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera or Aston Martin DBS Superleggera.

However the Ducati puts a whole new spin on the term, since it’s one of the lightest and most powerful road-going motorcycles ever made, with a record-making power-to-weight ratio of 1.41hp/kg.

Ducati puts a whole new spin on the term ‘superleggera’, since it’s one of the lightest and most powerful road-going motorcycles ever made, with a record-making power-to-weight ratio of 1.41hp/kg.

The Superleggera V4 has a dry weight of only 159kg and has 224hp. In other words it weighs less than a 250cc scooter and has more than 10 times the power. To compare it to a normal sportbike, the Yamaha R1 weighs 200kg and has 200hp.

Increasing performance through weight saving is tough in cars, but extra hard in motorcycles. Ducati achieved the super-skinniness by making most of the chassis out of carbonfibre – the Superleggera, it boasts, is the only production motorcycle with a chassis, swingarm and wheels made almost entirely of carbonfibre. 

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The entire skin is also carbonfibre, and now features aerodynamic wings derived from the Desmosedici GP16 MotoGP bike, producing 50kg of downforce at 270km/h. 

Powering the bike is the special race-derived version of the V4 engine, dubbed the Desmosedici Stradale R, which is smaller than the regular Panigale V4 sportsbike’s 1103cc V4 but more powerful, and also has an optional Akrapovic race exhaust kit, which increases the output to 234hp. 

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The loadout is rounded-out by top-shelf components, including the best Ohlins suspension and Brembo brakes you can possibly get without being a motorcycle race team, plus Ducati’s newest electronics package to help you reign in all that power (probably). 

With the bike you also get the best of personal protective gear in the form of a Dainese D-Air airbag-equipped racing suit, and an Arai Corsair X-RC carbonfibre helmet.

That’s not the only bonus, either. If you purchase a Superleggera V4, Ducati will invite you to Italy to have a go on its World Superbike (WSBK) racing machine, the Panigale V4 R.

On top of that, Ducati is also offering 30 Superleggera owners (who pay a bit more, obviously) the chance to try out the very pinnacle of its prototype racers – the actual Desmosedici GP20 from MotoGP.

If you think S$300,000 is an insane amount to pay for a motorcycle, you’re obviously not the target audience: the previous V-twin version of the Superleggera cost around S$250k, but was still sold out here in Singapore.

But to put it in another way: No matter how much money or status you have, Mercedes-Benz or Ferrari will probably never let you drive one of their Formula One cars, yet Ducati’s MotoGP experience is the two-wheeled equivalent of that.

We’ve always said that motorcycles offer far more than cars in terms of sheer experience and cost-effectiveness – even at high COE levels – but this settles the argument once and for all.