It's filled with red hot racing technology, but it's heading to a city street near you. The 2012 model year introduces a new dimension to the Ducati Superbike lineage.

The 1199 Panigale (pronounced "Pan-ee-gah-lee") takes all the best technology from the track and delivers it to its rider via a street legal package. READ ON

PALM SPRINGS, CALIF.—Ducati has a knack for designing stunningly styled motorcycles that work quite well, and later introducing smaller-displacement versions that work even better. The Italian bike maker has done this in the past with the Monster series and just a couple of years ago with the Hypermotard 1100. Later it introduced the 796 version, which was a better-balanced package with a greater appeal for a wider range of riders. READ ON

You are given the keys to a brand new Ducati Panigale Tricolore at 9am and told to return them, and the bike, by 5pm that day. What do you do? To PH2 the answer is simple - trash the hell out of it on the road, stick it on a dyno then take it to Bruntingthorpe proving ground to see what it does flat out...

What's the deal then?
There are four variations of Panigale for sale. The base 1199 Panigale (not stock, that makes it sound cheap) costs £14,995 or £15,750 with ABS. This has all the electric gizmos but to get the flash electrically adjustable Ohlins suspension you need to pay an extra £4,000 and get the Panigale 1199S for £19,750, which comes with ABS as standard.

Then you have the Tricolore, which will set you back a burly £23,495. As well as the trick paint job you get Ducati's datalogging kit with a new GPS feature and also a set of titanium Termignoni performance silencers. PH2 lucks out: we get the key to the Tricolore.  READ ON