FIT FIGHTING

It’s one thing making the most powerful, exciting and perhaps brilliant supernaked to ever grace the earth, but what happens when the time comes to top it?

- BRUCE

How do you perfect perfection? The Streetfighter’s evolution was, of course, inevitable, but truthfully speaking, there wasn’t much wrong with the last one. In my humble opinion, the box-fresh beast that hit the scene in 2020 would still batter the core of today’s supernaked sector. Ducati created a monster, and several years on its brilliance still reverberates the world over. The downside to that success is the expectation that consequently follows… people always want more. Ultimately, Ducati re-wrote the rulebook with the Streetfighter, pumping out a street naked weighing less than 200kg and making more than 200bhp... for context, making it more powerful and lighter than a number of thoroughbred sportsbikes – the cheek of it. That formula has gone on to prove a winner in our magazine tests – but, more importantly, in the showrooms.

Fast-forward to the back end of 2022 and Ducati showcased its ‘new’ Streetfighter V4 familia. The problem is that most people, including myself, had a hard job telling it was new. From 10 yards, it still looked the same, with the only obvious aesthetic difference being to the fuel tank (that’s been nabbed off the ’22-spec Panigale V4) and the streamlined shoulders that brace it. Oh, and it now comes in Grey Nero paintwork as well as the iconic Ducati Red option. When you’re trying to crank the hype and justify a £23k price tag for the best-selling V4S option, those of us who are familiar with the model want more. And that’s exactly what we are getting... but it’s not that blatant to see.