This is the new Ducati 959 Panigale. It is priced at around Rs 14 lakh ex-showroom, only comes in red (in India), and is here to make you feel a bit awful about buying the Triumph Daytona 675, R or otherwise. It also replaces Ducati’s previous sub litre-class sports offering the 899 Panigale, and even though the 959 Panigale might not look too dramatically different from the 899, the changes, Ducati assures us, are significant. Read more about the changes here.
So, why did Ducati feel the need to up the capacity from 899 to almost 1000cc even though the 959 is clearly not a litre-class challenger? Ducati says it loves its V-Twin engine layout. But, the 899 had lost some of that meaty, usable torque characteristic that truly sets Ducati’s V-Twin apart from inline fours. So, increase in capacity via a longer stroke seemed to be the answer. And this is how it feels to ride…