The 2013 Ducati Hypermotard is all new; smaller, lighter and more powerful than the air-cooled model it replaces. This SP version adds fancy Ohlins shock and Marzocchi forks for even better handling.

We’ve spent the last two weeks living with the fastest motorcycle in the world, the Ducati 1199 Panigale R, also riding it alongside the less exotic Ducati 1199 Panigale S. How do the two stack up in the real world?

Motorcycles tend to get the best of their four wheeled counterparts in a straight line. It's not all that surprising, what with the weight advantage and all. Audi builds the excellent R8 supercar. Audi owns motorcycle maker Ducati. A drag race to 150 and back to 0 had to happen.

Who’s most qualified to review the Ducati 1199 Panigale S? A racer? A journalist? How about the guy who departed on a 15,000-mile, seven-month, coast-to-coast (and back) road trip the day he bought one? Dennis Matson did just that, then authored this review.

Is anybody sick of watching supercar and superbike drag races at air strips yet? No? Didn't think so. I could watch this stuff all day, and I'll bet you can too.

When one sport bike rider doesn't see a trailer in front of him in the road, the ensuing crash is unbelievably destructive. Watch the video and you won't believe he got away with just a broken arm and a broken leg.

Chris Harris could drift a block of concrete and regularly makes quick work of some of the world's trickiest road courses in the world's wickedest cars. It's therefore amusing to me that he gets so nervous about a little old quarter-mile.

This is the Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:00 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parcel it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?

After weeks of rumor, VW announced moments ago that it has agreed to purchase Ducati for something in the neighborhood of $1.12 billion through its Audi brand. But why does a gigantic auto conglomerate want a tiny bike manufacturer? What will VW do with Ducati? And, what does the deal mean for that most evocative of…

Audi hasn't officially purchased Ducati, but the German brand has first bid on the Italian superbike maker. More important than the actual news are the jokes. Oh so many jokes.