Super-light, super-fast and super-expensive, yes that’s the Ducati 1199 Superleggera! Ducati has unveiled their complete performance- based bike. With this they have raised the bar of power-to-weight-ratio making it even more lighter and faster than ever before with the incorporation of titanium, magnesium and carbon-fibre.
This new race-bred machine is based on the Ducati 1199 Panigale R and has the 1198cc L-twin engine packed around a single shell design of magnesium and carbon-fibre body. The engine which has four valve cylinder heads claims to produce about 200bhp and 154 Nm of torque as opposed to the Panigale R which produces about 195bhp and 152Nm of torque.
The motorcycle also brags of features like a lightweight lithium-ion battery, carbon-fibre body work, a titanium exhaust, front and rear Ohlins suspension, Brembo brakes and a World Superbike-spec drive chain. Most of the bolts, exhaust valves and racing-spec two-ring pistons have been reworked with titanium. So now the dry weight has come down to around 155kg. The 2013 spec of the Panigale R has a dry-weight of about 165kg.
A special race kit has also been designed for the track which is believed to reduce 2.5kg of dry weight and gives an extra five bhp boost. This kit includes a titanium Akrapovic race exhaust system, a high racing wind-screen, front and rear paddock-stands, dust-cover, machined mirror fill-caps, side-stand and removal kits for registration-plate holder.
The Ducati 1199 Superleggera is apparently leading the charts of production motorcycles. However, being a limited edition, only 500 units of this will be produced out of which 75 per cent of them have already been booked. Prices of the motorcycle have not been released yet, but it is believed to be priced high enough to be close to those of the production versions of the MotoGP motorcycles.
