Ducati has just taken its idea of a road bike and stretched it to somewhere near breaking point with the Superleggera V4 Centenario, a machine that feels less like a celebration model and more like a thinly disguised race bike that somehow slipped past the authorities.
It’s built to mark 100 years, sure, but there’s nothing nostalgic about the way it goes about its business. This is Ducati doing what it always does when it wants to remind everyone who’s in charge—make something outrageously fast, strip out anything that isn’t essential, and then somehow make it road legal.
You look at it and immediately clock the carbon. Everywhere. Not just the obvious bits, but the sort of obsessive, almost unnecessary carbon fibre use that tells you cost was never part of the conversation. Frame, subframe, swingarm, bodywork—if it could be lighter, it is lighter. And the end result is properly startling: 368 pounds. For context, that’s absurd. That’s “did someone forget to bolt something on?” territory.
Even compared to the already ferocious Ducati Panigale V4 R, it’s about 50 pounds down. You don’t shave that kind of weight without going slightly mad in the process.
Then there’s the hardware. Öhlins NPX 25/30 forks—pressurized, carbon-shelled, straight out of a race paddock. A carbon-ceramic braking system, which sounds like something that should come with a warning label and a small team of engineers. And a DID ERV7 chain, which, unless you’re the sort of person who reads MotoGP tech sheets for fun, is far more serious than anything you’d normally find on a bike with mirrors and a number plate.
The engine, though, is where it really gets a bit silly. Ducati’s new 1,103cc Desmosedici Stradale R unit is lighter than before—by about eight pounds—and pushes out 228 horsepower in standard form. That’s already enough to make most riders question their life choices.
Fit the Akrapovič exhaust and the Corse oil, though, and suddenly you’re looking at 247 horsepower. On something that weighs about as much as a mid-sized scooter with delusions of grandeur. There’s a moment where you stop reading the numbers and just think: who is this actually for?
Because on paper, it sounds borderline unmanageable. And yet Ducati has thrown the entire electronics suite at it—traction control, wheelie control, ABS, launch control—everything you’d expect, and probably a few layers deeper than you’ll ever fully understand. It’s there to keep things vaguely civil, to give you a fighting chance when you inevitably get curious with the throttle.
Still, you can’t help but imagine what it feels like the first time you open it up properly. That split second where the front goes light, the engine hardens its tone, and your brain tries to catch up with what your right hand just did. That’s the sort of moment this bike is built for.
Visually, it leans into the occasion. Dark red racing livery, a bit of retro flair, and a signed plaque to remind you that this isn’t just another fast Ducati—it’s one of the special ones. The kind you don’t leave outside a café unless you’re feeling particularly brave or particularly wealthy.
And you’ll need to be the latter, because Ducati is only making 500 of these. There are also 100 Tricolore variants for those who feel the standard version isn’t exclusive enough, which is a sentence that says quite a lot about this whole project.
Pricing starts at $165,000. Which, in the world of motorcycles, is firmly in “you could have bought a house once” territory. You do get a limited-edition helmet and jacket thrown in, which feels almost quaint given what you’ve just spent.
Deliveries are set to begin in the first quarter of next year. If you can get one. And if you do, the real question isn’t whether you’ll ride it. It’s whether you’ll ever actually dare to use all of it.
