With the production version of its Audi -powered, carbon-chassis X-Bow track car due for unveiling at the Geneva Auto Show on March 4, KTM will mark the start of its growth to become a sports car maker, a recent report out of the U.K. reveals. The Austrian motorcycle company plans on defining a new niche in the sports car market, using Lotus ’s earlier years as an example.
“We expect to be producing five versions of the X-Bow,†Stefan Pierer, KTM ’s CEO, told Car. He said the added models will push production to 2,000 or 2,500 units a year, according to the U.K.’s Car magazine. One such variant would be a hardtop X-Bow Coupe. Another would be an off-roader.
He went on to say KTM wants to be a “serious player” in the high-end sports car arena. “Everything we do already in motorcycles, we want to do in cars,” he said.
The idea is nothing new to KTM, as it already uses a basic engine and chassis design to produce a range of motorcycles with decidedly differing missions in life.
The X-Bows went from a prototype to production in just a single year, and with most of the hard bits already in place, the variations can fly out of the Austrian factory at a quick pace. Pierer revealed the X-Bow will be followed by a race version to compete in the FIA GT championship’s GT4 Light division, while 2009 will see a version with a roof and doors. The latter will be the basis for a fourth variant, powered by a 330 horsepower engine based on the one found in the Audi S3.
While the plans are ambitious, KTM intends to prove the mettle of its new products – and garner the associated attention – by attacking some of the world’s most exclusive racing events with vehicles based largely on the X-Bow’s underpinnings. To prove itself on the off-road circuit where KTM’s motorcycles have enjoyed so much success, Pierer points out the X-Bow has been designed to offer a strong foundation for an off-road machine, and the company is considering entering it in the Dakar rally.
A new challenge for the company remains on-road supremacy however, and Pierer plans to tackle that with a LeMans endurance racer he calls the “four-wheeled equivalent of the RC8,†referring to the superbike recently launched by KTM.
