Together with Dallara, KTM developed its own racing version, with the cars being run in the GT4 European Cup by German race team, Reiter Engineering. It was therefore entirely logical that at the same time as the plans for the series production were developing, KTM was planning to run the X-Bow competitively on the racetrack. Motorsport is very important for KTM, as indicated by the company slogan ‘Ready to Race’. ‘Ready to Race’: the KTM X-Bow and its path to the racetrack The ‘Race’ model costs €82.900 ex-works and excluding national taxes – and customer deliveries are scheduled to begin in January 2009.Ģ. Compared to the standard road car, the X-Bow ‘Race’ features 30 modified or new components. This new ‘Race’ model incorporates all the lessons learned during the X-Bow’s first season of professional motorsport in Europe. Series production started on 16 June, the first customer took delivery of his X-Bow on 5 August.Īt the end of September 2008, the next milestone in KTM’s young car division was reached: the first KTM X-Bow Race, a fully FIA homologated GT4 Sports Light racing car, rolled off the assembly line in Graz. KTM had already started building a production plant in the Austrian ‘motor city’, Graz, and at the same time as the Automobile Salon in Geneva, assembly of the first prototype cars began. On the anniversary of that world premiere, KTM exhibited the production-ready version of the KTM X-Bow for the first time at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. The company sounded out the exclusive lightweight sportscar market with an aggressive design and a spectacular concept, complete with carbon fibre monocoque and the minimum of purist fittings.Įxtensive market research was undertaken and, following an overwhelmingly positive response from sportscar enthusiasts and motoring media all around the world, the decision was made to go ahead with further development for the series production model of the KTM X-Bow. KTM celebrated the world premiere of its first-ever car at the Geneva Motor Show in 2007 when the X-Bow was officially born. The ‘fathers’ of X-Bow moved quickly, commissioning an in-house ‘test mule’ to prove the validity of their concept and, in January 2006, began talking with Italian racing car- and sportscar specialist Dallara about the feasibility of KTM’s plan for developing such a road car. The meeting was a success and the lightweight, high-performance KTM X-Bow was conceived. Sportscars that, with a clear vision aligned to the KTM philosophy, ‘ready to race’, and clever engineering, might be able to deliver the excitement and immediacy of motorcycling – on four wheels rather than two. Against the background of the worrying state of the European motorcycle market – fewer drivers held a motorcycle licence compared to earlier years – were the brightening prospects of a widening window of opportunity appearing in the market for ‘pure’ sportscars. The result was the beginnings of a visionary, seminal automobile project. During the autumn of 2005, KTM CEO Stefan Pierer and Gerald Kiska, CEO and founder of the KISKA design studio, met for a routine meeting in Salzburg.
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