| Motorsport | GT4 European Cup | KTM X-Bow |
The paint has barely dried on the first production version of the KTM X-Bow and already the Austrian firm has announced its plans to go racing in 2008. The X-Bow will compete in the GT4 European Cup in the new Sports Light class.
Silverstone hosts the series kick off on 20 April and the X-Bow team is made up of two cars, prepared and run by German race team Reiter Engineering. Two drivers have already been taken on: Italian Loris Bicocchi and German Catharina Felser.
The KTM race car is apparently little different from the road-going model, with only extra safety equipment added to comply with regulations. There's a new steel roll-over bar, extra bodywork to enclose the wheels and some added protective bodywork to keep the driver safe in the event of an accident.
The racing X-Bow uses the same 237bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged engine from Audi, which sees the KTM sprint from 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds thanks to an all-up weight of just 700kg. Road-going X-Bows cost £37,676 in the UK, but KTM has not yet confirmed how much a customer version of the racing car will cost.
Alisdair Suttie - 14 Mar 2008
