Nitrouz, a happy Canadian customer of Ducati’s new fanboy flagship, the Panigale V4, never must have thought even in his wildest dreams that his machine would go up in flames instead of burning asphalt.

A stroll on a busy street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Nitrouz smelt something burning, and a gaze down made him see his baby literally on fire. Reacting quick, he parked it off the street only to see the bike engulfed in flames. Luckily, folks at North American Ducati came to his rescue quite immediately and offered him a new V4 and an extended warranty.

In what will go down as the biggest paradigm shift for the company, Ducati launched its four-cylinder V4 Desmosedici Stradale Panigale back in November 2017. Similar to the one running on their Desmosedici GP bike and with 214 hp and 91.5 lb-ft of torque, this is the most powerful and the hottest bike in its class; quite literally now.

Ducatis are infamous for heating up more than usual, especially on a hot, dry day, with most of their current sportsbikes having the rear cylinder’s header pipe connecting the engine just under the seat making it a tad uncomfortable and irritating, to be honest. But this issue seems so farfetched for Nitrouz considering his situation of a burning V4.

Just like a lot of other Italians exotics (say Lambos and Ferraris), Ducati now seems to have joined the pack for having their machines go up in flames regardless of their flaring attitude toward quality control. Admittedly, Ducati's reaction has been unbeatable. Ducati North America immediately contacted Nitrouz and assured him that his motorcycle would be replaced at the earliest.

What we haven’t yet figured out is the cause of the V4 catching fire, and I’m sure Ducati is doing everything in their powers to figure out the reason. We hope this is an isolated incident and does not affect every other Panigale V4s’ out there that might culminate in Ducati calling for a withdrawal. In any case, we have to say that neither Nitrouz nor any third party was injured.

Kudos to Ducati for taking responsibility for the situation and taking care of its customers. These things go a long way into brand PR 101.