Lunar Landing: KTM X-Bow Spotted on Nürburgring
Austrian concern KTM is putting the final touches on its X-Bow sports car, as evidenced by this prototype caught testing on the Nürburgring.
As the minimalist roadster looks like little else, perhaps the company’s engineers realized the folly in attempting to disguise their testing mule and instead opted to outfit it in the same distinctive orange paneling seen on their Geneva show car.
As if it needed any help, this evaluation mule looks even more otherworldly than normal thanks to a set of cone-like data recovery wheels at all four corners, and a comically massive computer riding shotgun—presumably for performance analysis.
The X-Bow will rely on versions of Audi’s 2.0-liter turbocharged FSI engine, giving 220 or 260 horsepower, depending on customer-specified state of tune. A 300 horsepower option (think: Audi S3) is in the cards, but with KTM’s order queue filled to overflowing, it may be a little while.
For now, KTM will have its hands full supplying its 700+ European dealers with cars. Strong advanced demand for the car has reportedly forced the motorcycle manufacturer to rethink its production plans. As the story goes, KTM originally had designs on building about 100 units per year with Italian racing company Dallara, but consumers with deposits in hand convinced them to sign up with Magna-Steyr to build around 1000 X-Bows annually.
Those who got their deposits in early can expect to see their track day toys sometime next spring.
Now, if we could just find a way to get one over here to test against the Ariel Atom and Caterham's latest...
(Click on the thumbnails below to launch a high-res gallery, or on the links below for more details)
+ WINDING ROAD: Strong KTM X-Bow Pre-Sales Force New Production Deal
Comments
Ducati Minor
The X-Bow should bow out with looks like that.
Patrick from Astoria
It's not pretty, it's hopelessly impractical, I know already that there's no way it's going to be sold here anyway. It is just insanely desirable, though.
FPF422
Can I have it in a more ugly "body"? I know other minimalistic high perf drives that are more beautiful...
Paul In Jersey
The main difference between the X-Bow and, for argument's sake, a Caterham 7 is thus.
When you drive down the street in a Caterham 7, some fellow may see you and say, "That reminds me. I must pick-up the misses' cardigan from the dry cleaners."
But when you drive down the street in an X-Bow, some fellow may see you and say, "That reminds me. I must pick -up some new bags for the vacuum sweeper."
The Dyson Vacuum Sweeper and the X-Bow. Seperated at birth? You decide.
http://www.dyson.com/range/DC21-MOTORHEAD/1_full.jpg
Paul In Jersey
Sorry, I forgot to HTML the image.
detroit9000
Achoo!
Clint
"What If?" Question That Should Never be Explored Number One:
"What if instead of building cars with go-kart-like handling, manufactures built go-karts with car-like performance?"
Yikes.
Christopher
Clever comments - thanks for the intellectual caffeine. What I find interesting about the Crossbow is that it represents a blurring of the lines. It's not a racecar, per se, inasmuch as it doesn't seem to fit into any of the established race categories, although perhaps it can be squeezed into one. Regardless, it wasn't built to compete in a particular class.
It's a bit like the (less hardcore) Arial Atom. And while all of these sorts of toys might be great fun on the track, at least in the U.S., I suspect they wouldn't prove ultimately all that satisfying for trackdays (by that, I mean DEs, not wheel-to-wheel events): with restricted passing rules, having the fastest car on the track -- particularly one that this bloody fast -- is usually an exericse in frustration.
I'd take one in a heartbeat, sure, but for the money, I suspect I'd rather use the money to buy a real racecar (one that's competitive in whatever class I wanted to run), an enclosed trailer, and a tow vehicle, and (I'm guessing at the price) a 3-series for daily driving.
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Tom
Don't forget the Elise 2-Eleven!
BTW, I think the KTM is full of data acquistion gear, including the wheels.
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