V4: DESIGNED TO DOMINATE

One was forged a legend, the other perfects it. We pit Honda's iconic RC30 against Ducati's latest Panigale V4 Tricolore to explore just how far the V4 superbike has come in nearly four decades.

- WORDS: BIG MAC PICS: CHIPPY

Just what is it about a motorbike with a V4 engine that gets us all frothy and aroused in a way that any bike with an inline four-cylinder engine can't? It's a question I've often mused on over the years and I've never really come up with an answer - probably because it's a two-part answer that itself isn't as straight forward as it could be.

I suppose at the heart of it is the fact that riding motorbikes is so much more than just sitting on top of whatever bike you have and going through the motions... that's what cars are for. Riding bikes is so much more involving and when all is said and done, in most cases it's a hobby.

Riding a bike is by default a source of enjoyment, but why does any bike with a V4 always have that certain something extra? Is it as simple as the sound it makes? Is it the fact that in almost every case, any bike with a V4 engine is usually something very special or exclusive? Is it how, even subtly, they ride that bit differently?

There are technical reasons dictated by physics as to why a V4 sounds and feels different to an inline-four which I'll come on to later, but for the 'touchy feely' bit, I put a call into a couple of very generous mates who between them have the original bad boy, top of the food chain superbike with a V4 engine from the late 1980s - the Honda RC30 - and the current bad boy, top of the food chain V4 superbike - the Ducati Panigale V4.

As luck would further have it, the spec of the Panigale I managed to get hold of is the new, pimped up, limited Tricolore edition, of which there are only 1000 in the world. And the RC30 is a peach, uniquely one that gets used regularly by its owner and not pampered like so many are. Best guesses are that about 4000 were made worldwide back in the day, so today it's safe to say there are probably much fewer - maybe the same amount as the Tricolore.