KTM is well noted for its hardcore off-road and sports motorcycles, and now it's looking to dabble in four wheels.

The Austrian bike manufacturer has built some quads, and this four-wheeler is a seriously sporty rival to the Lotus Elise.

KTM has been working with Dallara, a company with a history in Formula One, to develop the roadster.

Power comes from a mid-mounted 2.0-litre turbo engine bought from Volkswagen. It looks likely the engine will put out 250bhp and drive through either a six-speed manual gearbox or VW's DSG sequential manual 'box.

The link to VW means the KTM could be serviced at Volkswagen dealers, but the car is set to be sold at KTM's existing motorcycle dealers.

KTM boss Stefan Pierer reckons there's sufficient demand to sell 1000 of the roadsters every year. We'll get the chance to have a proper look during the Geneva Motorshow in March 2007.

Austrian motorcycle maker KTM has released some initial illustrations of its much-rumored X-Bow (a.k.a. Crossbow) roadster. The vehicle was developed in cooperation with Audi, and uses both Audi components and an Audi engine. Output is around 220 horsepower.

The companies are said to be in talks with Magna Steyr about mass production, but for the time being just 100 units will be built. The roadster will be officially unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March. It's not known how the vehicle will be branded, or if it will come to North America.

Looks Like a Motorcycle, Drives Like a Supercar

By Nick Trott, Contributor

Date posted: 07-17-2007

It sits in Pit Garage 1 at the Brands Hatch racing circuit on a beautiful spring day. It looks, well, odd.

Odd like the product of some unlikely union between Picasso's pencil and a Formula 1 racing team's software for computational fluid dynamics. Odd like something cleaved from a huge block of carbon fiber with a big, ugly axe. Odd like nothing the automotive world has seen since the Lamborghini Countach. Odd as in good, actually.

It is the 2008 KTM X-Bow, an Austrian-funded, German-powered, Italian-engineered pocket-size supercar. It is what you get if an ambitiously minded European motorcycle manufacturer (KTM) and an open-minded German car manufacturer (Audi) get jiggy in the back of a camper van. And it can be yours in February 2008 for about $50,000.

The Latest, Greatest Track Toy
With the X-Bow, — pronounced like "crossbow" — KTM is unashamedly taking on Ariel, Lotus, Noble and Radical, the core of British manufacturers that have created an ever-growing market in racetrack-ready cars for weekend driving enthusiasts. That's one of the reasons we're here at Brands Hatch. KTM is intrigued, as are we, to gauge the reaction from punters attending a typical British track day.

KTM Sales Manager Florian Kecht is astonished by the reaction. Four serious orders are taken on the spot. "We knew Britain was a significant market for us, but now that I've seen a track day, I know why," he says. "We have nothing like this in Austria — nothing."

For all its aesthetic bravura, the X-Bow is a speculative dip into an uncertain new market for KTM. In recent years, the Austrian manufacturer of expensive, high-tech off-road motorcycles has expanded into ATVs, and it began to explore the manufacture of a super-fast, super-sized ATV in the summer of 2005. For a short time Audi considered branding the project, but then decided it could only contribute the powertrain at a friendly price. Designed by KTM's longtime partner Kiska Design, the X-Bow project was engineered by KTM with assistance from Dallara, the famous Italian manufacturer of open-wheel racing cars.

KTM didn't finally decide to proceed with production until after the strong response to the X-Bow concept car at the 2007 Geneva Auto Show. Since then, demand has been so great that the initial batch of 100 cars has quickly sold out and another 600 orders have been registered. Dallara had been commissioned to build the first hundred X-Bows, but further production has been switched to Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria, and there's talk of 1,000 cars being built in 2008.

Someone's Turned This Car Inside Out
Originally penned by Kiska Design with a remarkably open design brief, the X-Bow is a striking union of dirt-bike aesthetics and track-car requirements. Kiska identified an opportunity to make the carbon-fiber structure not only a structural hanger for the components but also an aesthetic component.

Like a supermodel wearing the eensy-weensiest bikini, the X-Bow's chassis — not its clothes — draws the eye in the bright Brands Hatch sunlight. In fact, so unashamedly does the X-Bow flounce its carbon-fiber tub that it's hard to see where the chassis ends and the bodywork begins. Two flared, vaguely L-shaped panels appear to float over the front suspension components, then spear off toward the outer edges of the front crash structure.

At the rear a similar pair of L-shaped panels encloses the engine compartment, their role seemingly undefined other than providing something else that can be painted the signature corporate orange of KTM.

Like an Ariel Atom, the KTM X-Bow has that inside-out feel, a minimalist expression of high performance.

The Bones
The carbon-fiber monocoque weighs 154 pounds and features an integral crashworthy structure. The KTM's thickly woven carbon fiber might not be aesthetically pleasing, but its satin finish is deeply satisfying on a tactile level. (You just can't stop stroking the bloody thing.) The wishbone-type suspension arms have been fabricated from aerodynamic sections of steel (aluminum would be too bulky), and the front, racing-type pushrod suspension units improve packaging.

The engine is Audi's familiar direct-injected, turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4. Apparently KTM had planned to work jointly with Audi on the X-Bow, but the German company's reservations about a car without street-legal safety equipment (Audi wanted airbags) made it impossible to display the four rings of Audi anywhere on the car. Nevertheless, Audi has made its powertrain available.

Three engine options of the turbo 2.0-liter will be offered: the familiar 220-horsepower version, plus the chipped 260-hp and 300-hp alternatives. In either format, that's a hell of a lot of horsepower for a car that weighs just 1,598 pounds when its 9.2-gallon fuel tank is full of gasoline and it's equipped with a six-speed manual transmission or 1,644 pounds with its Audi S Tronic dual-clutch gearbox. KTM expects the majority of X-Bows to be spec'd with the twin-clutch gearbox with the shift paddles mounted on the steering wheel. Track-car one-upmanship gets no better than a DSG-equipped 300-hp X-Bow, you'd think.

There's More to Life Than Looking Good
So KTM is on to a winner. The car has all the ingredients for success and demand is already looking increasingly like it will outstrip supply. Job done then? Not quite.

Such is the promise of the 2008 KTM X-Bow that it has to deliver like perhaps no other car of its type. It will have to be sensational to drive — rampant like a supercharged Atom, delicate like a Caterham, stable like a Radical and as well integrated as a Noble. It should deliver if it comes through with the 1.0g-capability on the skid pad that KTM promises. We'll find out later this year.

And get this: KTM has not ruled out developing another car, which makes the X-Bow less of a car and more of a manifesto for Europe's newest automobile manufacturer.

Extreme cars, like the Lotus Seven and more recently the Ariel Atom, have always made history in what relates to dynamics and driving pleasure. KTM, a traditional Austrian motorcycle manufacturer, has decided last year to write its own name in this book with the X-Bow, its first adventure in the world of four wheels. And what an adventure it has proven to be with the official presentation of the first X-Bow ready for production, the special series Dallara.

Named after the Italian racing car specialist, the Dallara series will have only 100 units made in order to start production in great style. Not that the car needs this sort of thing, but any help for a beginner is always welcome. And what a beginner this little Austrian machine is: only 750 kg, a 2-litre TFSI engine made by Audi, delivering 240 cv and 310 Nm, a competition-tuned chassis (with the option of a motor racing chassis, that offers highly adjustable suspension) and the amazing looks that come along with it.

This profile allows the car to reach 100 km/h from 0 in 3.9 s. Fuel consumption, nonetheless, is only 13.3 km/l. This proves high performance cars that want to be environmentally friendly do not necessarily have to use hybrid technology. They only must lose weight! In X-Bow’s case, that weight includes the roof, the windshield and all sorts of comfort devices, such as air-conditioning (why for, in a roofless vehicle?) and radio, CD player or any other entertainment device. For the owner of such a car, music is the engine’s noise.

The Dallara special series brings bodywork, aerodynamic parts and wheel mudguards in carbon, instead of plastic, quick release/locking device for the wheels, removable steering wheel, adjustable suspension, mechanical limited slip differential and a metal plaque with the serial number of the car in the interior. Almost needless to say, all 100 units have already been sold, what leaves anyone in love with the car only two choices: wait until someone sells its X-Bow Dallara or buy a “regular” X-Bow. Production starts in the middle of the year in Graz, Austria, and will reach 500 units in 2008. In the following years, it is expected to top 1,000 units annually, considering demand does not make it necessary to increase production. Good luck, rookie!

Slingshot
By Jason Barlow, Contributor
Date posted: 07-23-2008


A four-point harness clamps your body tight into a specially designed Recaro seat. Except it isn't really a seat; it's more a slice of orthopedic padding glued to a carbon-fiber shell that's fixed to the carbon-fiber monocoque. There are no doors, no windows and only a slender polycarbonate excuse for a windscreen.

Yet the 2008 KTM X-Bow (say "Crossbow") is practically an objet d'art compared to the crude specialty cars that usually pass for track cars. It's a surprising effort from a company known only for its motocross bikes.

Like a racecar, it has a detachable, adjustable multifunction steering wheel, and its entire pedal box slides backward and forward to suit your size. An LCD display in a rectangular pod sort of hovers in the middle of the cabin, letting you scroll between speed, engine rpm, water and oil temperatures and lap time. And there's no ABS, no ESP, no EBD, no electronic interference of any kind.

We're expecting a shock to the system from this elemental device; yet at first, the X-Bow delivers a jolt no bigger than you'd get from an industrial-strength Starbucks espresso. Despite the Judge Dredd appearance, the 2008 KTM X-Bow's clutch take-up and gearchange are more refined than those of the Audi models that share this car's 237-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4.

Where's the drama? What gives?

Looks Like a Motorcycle, Drives Like a Car
Introduced at the 2007 Geneva Auto Show, the KTM X-Bow has created huge interest. At first, a batch of just 100 cars was planned, but 600 orders poured in within a few weeks. Instead of building the car in a small facility, KTM finally arranged an assembly line at Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria. KTM chief designer Gerald Kiska says, "We didn't have to compromise our early design proposals very much at all. We had the freedom that a motorcycle designer enjoys. The technical details and the structural elements that are normally hidden are all visible on this car."

The X-Bow's creation could be a case study in 21st century automotive production, as the only thing KTM designed and developed itself was the exhaust system and everything else is from blue-chip suppliers. Chief among KTM's partners has been Dallara, the Italian racecar manufacturer, which is an expert in carbon-fiber construction. Four different computer models of the X-Bow were tested on 100 different racetrack simulations during the car's development, while the full battery of Formula-1-style aerodynamic and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analyses were carried out.

The car's carbon-fiber tub weighs 198 pounds and is made by German specialist Wethje. It's exquisite, and it sets a new precedent, not just for low-volume track weaponry but also for the automotive industry as a whole. The X-Bow's body generates 425 pounds of downforce at 124 mph, and KTM claims the car can pull 1.5g on road tires and 1.8g on race rubber.

With X-Bow prices starting at $86,000, you've got to wonder how KTM plans to make money out of this thing. But project boss Stefan Riedler is confident: "The break-even point is 4,000 cars, and we plan to make 1,000 per year. With the race program in the FIA's [Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile] new GT4 category, we might break even sooner than that. This combination of styling, performance and especially technology is just not currently available."

Spanish Dancer
We're driving the 2008 KTM X-Bow at the Ascari Race Resort, a private track near Malaga, Spain, that knits together some of the most famous corners from racing circuits around the world into a 26-turn playground for track cars. The X-Bow is fast and fluid, but even as the laps start to come together, the KTM feels a bit squishy, as if all its sharp edges have been meticulously smoothed off. It's easy to drive it fast and fluently, but that's the problem — it's too easy. It doesn't sound particularly thrilling either, as the turbocharged Audi 2.0-liter engine emits nothing more than a faintly waspish buzz.

To the best of our knowledge, the weight of this engine has never before been quoted to anyone by Audi, but now the 378 pounds estimated by KTM seem very relevant. The six-speed manual transmission is another 132 pounds. When you consider that the KTM X-Bow itself weighs 1,742 pounds, it's easy to become obsessed with such details.

The turbocharged inline-4 makes 237 hp at 5,500 rpm, while the 229 pound-feet of torque are spread evenly between 2,000 rpm and 5,500 rpm. The suspension layout features double wishbones front and rear, and the dampers from WP Suspension (a motorcycle specialist) are adjustable for bump and rebound. The brakes come from Brembo, with 12-inch discs in front and 10.3-inch discs in the rear.

After a couple of hot laps around the Ascari circuit with Dallara test-driver Loris Bicocchi, we realize that all this adds up to something devastatingly good after all.

For a start, he's driving at a gear higher pretty much everywhere, using the engine's broad torque band to carry the speed instead of running at peak rpm, like we were doing. A red shift-light blinks on the KTM's dash when you hit the redline, and Bicocchi doesn't trouble it once during two fearsome laps. Meanwhile, he exploits the compliant suspension by using the brakes and turning in aggressively, expertly managing the weight transfer.

Well-Bred but Fast
It's about confidence. The chassis is amazing, and its character builds more the harder you go. Once you've twigged that it's not racecar twitchy, and that there's a limit to what those Michelin tires can do for ultimate grip on asphalt that's been baking in the Spanish sun, the 2008 KTM X-Bow shows itself to be a well-sorted device.

It'll slide under power, or if you throttle off abruptly, but it's deliriously easy to stay on top of things. The steering in high-speed corners is superb and even allows for tiny adjustments without dishing out any punishment. And once you've sussed the brakes, they're simply awesome.

Is the X-Bow ready to race? With a stiffer suspension setup and the right rubber, there's no question that the chassis is up to the job. As to the mechanical purity that a track car is expected to deliver, the KTM could definitely use more power, and there should certainly be some extra aural drama. Sharper throttle response would help, too.

For such a wild-looking thing, KTM admits it has erred on the side of caution to begin with. So right now, the 2008 KTM X-Bow is a track car that's looking for a great road.

The ‘Race of Champions’ is the crowning highlight of every motorsports year, with the world’s best
racing and rally drivers at the wheel of different vehicles in exciting head-to-head races infront of
thousands of thrilled motorsports fans. Legendary drivers such as Michael Schumacher, Sebastien
Loeb, Tom Kristensen and Matthias Ekström were among those participating in the December 2008
event at London’s Wembley Stadium, which also marked the first appearance of the KTM X-BOW.

The organisers, in particular rally legend Michelle Mouton, were fascinated by the revolutionary,
lightweight supersports car from Austria. “The X-BOW is an exciting new sportscar – it generates an
incredible furore with its spectacular design alone,” said Mouton, the most successful and best-known
female rally driver of all time. And the participating racing drivers were all unanimous in their
enthusiasm for the X-BOW. Formula 1 legend David Coulthard commented, “It’s an ingenious car
concept that also looks quite simply unique.” Sebastian Vettel enthused that “Driving the KTM X-BOW
is incredible fun,” while multiple world rally champion Sebastien Loeb called it simply “a great car!”

Everyone at the young car manufacturer is extremely proud of the X-BOW’s performance at the Race
of Champions; so much so, it was logical that a special limited-edition series, named ‘Race of
Champions’, or ROC for short, should be produced. Unique details featuring on the series of 30 units
include: exclusive ROC design on the body panels and the weight-saving all-carbon body; the sports
exhaust which attracts special attention with its deep sound; specially painted light-weight alloy wheels with a central wheel nut; adjustable sports suspension; and a removable multi-function steering wheel.

The price for the ultimate supersports car of champions is 69,980 Euros (plus national taxes and import duties).

The downtrodden economy has squashed several high-performance vehicle programs, with the latest news indicating that one more performance vehicle program could be on the verge of extinction. Austria’s KTM has reportedly suspended production of its X-Bow track-day hero.

The KTM X-Bow is one of the most extreme performance vehicles on the planet – thanks to its feather-light curb weight and a turbocharged 2.0L engine – but the global economic downturn has slowed sales to a trickle. With supply of the X-Bow now far outstripped demand, KTM has reportedly decided to halt production.

KTM originally planned to produce about 1,000 units of the X-Bow per year, but the company’s Graz, Austria factory has on produced 500 examples to date. Even more worrisome, KTM has only sold 80 of those 500 units.

No official word on when production will resume, but X-Bows aren’t expected to begin rolling down the assembly line until January 2010 at the earliest.

At the moment KTM is working intensively on the 2011 model of its super sports car X-BOW. The first ever small series manufactured and street legal homologated car with a carbon fibre monocoque has been sold around 500 times since its launch in 2008. Around 50 X-BOW partners throughout Europe and currently ten importers globally look after sports car enthusiasts all over the world in order to supply the only 790 kilogram light, 240 horsepower strong extreme athlete.

After having been on the market for approximately two years now, the KTM X-BOW line-up will be supplemented with the introduction of the "R" model in the upcoming year. The engine for this even more powerful version comes again from Audi – but it will be exactly the same engine used among others in the actual Audi S3.

Changes to the engine electronics and peripheral devices will boost the performance up to 300 horsepower. Additionally, a considerably lower positioning and a modified mounting of the engine will lead to even higher cornering speeds and increased driving precision. In addition, two optional equipment packages should customize the X-BOW "R" as ideally as possible to the requirements of the customers: The road legal and homologated "Sport" package, as well as the "Race" package, which is optimised for track use. The packages each include a vast number of completely new developed parts, which increase the performance of the car dramatically. Many of these parts will be also available separately in the PowerParts program, so all current KTM X-BOW owners will enjoy the benefit of the new developments.

The prototype shown, pictured at a first rollout on the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife, has nearly all new parts installed, which will raise the enthusiasm amongst the numerous X-BOW customers and which should attract many more new customers.

Detailed information, prices and pictures will follow at the beginning of next year.

There may very well be super sports cars that live up to this description. Whether it be due to their spectacular appearance. Whether it be due to their outstanding technology. Whether it be due to their breathtaking performance. Or whether it be due to their history steeped in tradition. However, no other car epitomises the term "super sports car" as thoroughly and uncompromisingly as the KTM X-BOW GT. Based on the X-BOW R - itself unique in the matter of high-tech, safety, drive dynamics and appearance - Austrian manufacturer KTM has created a vehicle whose exceptional characteristics can now also be experienced without a helmet. The elegant, frameless windscreen construction, which wraps protectively around the driver and passenger in the same way as a helmet visor, allows the occupants to forego their own headgear. At the same time, however, it does nothing to impair the puristic driving experience or the radical design of the revolutionary KTM X-BOW. Quite the contrary.

The evolution of the KTM design language makes bodywork elements appear more graphic, while just a few sharply drawn lines help to structure the surfaces very clearly. The engine cover, which now has gill-like ventilation slits, connects extensively with the rear bodywork elements that make the rear end - with its new shape - appear much more muscular and powerful. The view from the front also surprises with a new look: The headlamp surrounds have become narrower, the bonnets are attached over the front splitter at a striking angle - making the whole front end of the KTM X-BOW GT appear even brawnier. The new elements – windscreen and side windows – blend seamlessly into each other, thereby creating the "helmet visor effect". The frameless upper edge ensures a flowing transition between "outside" and "inside": It extends an imaginary line up to the rear bonnets, thereby bestowing the whole vehicle with greater dynamics. The new GT makes an even wider, lower, more compact and more powerful appearance. The fact that the aerodynamics have been improved in order to generate less drag and even more downforce goes without saying, due, if nothing else, to the racing genes that are also inherent to this KTM X-BOW.

The technical basis for the KTM X-BOW GT was provided by the "R", with its 2.0 litre TFSI power unit from engine partner Audi and a carbon monocoque found nowhere else in street-legal production vehicles. So it's hardly surprising that numerous reminiscences of racing are also to be encountered in the interior: The fixed Recaro seat shells, which are integrated directly in the carbon monocoque and ensure excellent safety whenever its needed, in conjunction with the four-point safety belts from Schroth, are just as much part of the standard equipment on the KTM X-BOW GT as the sliding pedal box and the multi-function steering wheel with adjustable height and depth. Experience ergonomics previously unheard of in a super sports car, as the unrivalled field of view has barely changed in spite of the windscreen: The short, slender A-pillars hardly affect visibility at all; the overview is perfect, even when cornering.

The KTM X-BOW GT benefits from the racing genes of the tried-and-tested model, combining them with new qualities to meet the requirements resulting from installation of a windscreen. There are many new details to discover in the interior; the centre console in particular has been completely revamped. Behind the shift lever, it's not the ON/OFF button for starting and stopping the Audi engine that sets the tone any more, but the clearly arranged switches for windscreen wiper, screen wash/wipe system, interior ventilation/heating and the windscreen heater. A technologically sophisticated solution allows integration of particularly thin heating wires in the windscreen, which, in contrast to customary standard solutions, are barely visible even in poor light conditions.