KTM announced the X-Bow for the first time back in 2008. During its lifetime, the car evolved in both looks and power and scored impressive results during the races it entered. The latest model from the series, the X-Bow GT2 made its racing debut in 2021 and was just as good as its predecessors, the X-BOW GTX and the X-BOW GT4. In just a year of racing, the GT2 scored multiple race wins and a championship title in the GT2 European Series. So, to honor it, KTM is planning to offer a road-going version of it to the masses.Be amongst the first KTM X-BOW COMP R U.S. customers and have your special edition car! The “First Batch” series is limited to ten cars only and comes with an upgraded 350 hp AUDI engine as well as a sequential gearbox from Holinger for unparalleled performance!The KTM X-BOW GT2, the latest version of the KTM X-BOW series, made its racing debut in 2021. It follows the footsteps of models like the X-BOW GTX and the X-BOW GT4 and continues the impressive racing tradition. They've proved themselves to be high-caliber racing machinery in motorsport series around the world.The KTM X-Bow has been under constant evolution since its inception back in 2008. The Austrian motorcycle manufacturer has been working closely with a handful of suppliers that helped turn the X-Bow into a better and better track machine as years went by.Today, we’re having a look at the GTX, the latest and most hardcore version of the KTM X-Bow. And yeah, it’s a full carbon-fiber affair this one.Week With a Car is a recurring look at the garage and multiple outdoor parking spots of Sam Smith, R&T’s globetrotting editor at large—magazine test cars, race cars, whatever he's driving that week. These dispatches usually take the form of a Frequently Asked Questions interview, with the author interviewing himself. They don’t always make sense, but then, that’s Smith.Did you spend a week with this weird-looking bug-face thing?Well, not technically a week. KTM held a press drive for U.S. journalists at Sears Point Raceway. I got two 20-minute track sessions in an X-Bow, plus some time sliding around a short paddock autocross. But the X-Bow has no roof, no doors, no rear seats. Five minutes in one is roughly as abusive as five days in any other car. (See what I did there?)I do. It was obvious and unpleasant. I remember these posts! That weird thing where you pretend to ask yourself questions about a car. I don't know why they let you do this.I don’t, either. I drink a lot of coffee at work. Maybe too much coffee. My friend Matt Farah once called these posts “one of the weirdest things about you, and there are a lot of weird things about you.”KTM. Small Austrian company. A friend has one of their dirt bikes. Big motocross-lookin’ thing that he likes to bounce off trees while trying to lacerate his spleen. Why are those people building a car?You all know the KTM X-Bow ultra-light sports car produced by Austria’s KTM, which also makes motorcycles, right?So this is some dual-purpose Austro fancy? No. The X-Bow weighs 1759 pounds. It was engineered in concert with Dallara, the firm behind the current IndyCar, and Austria’s Magna Steyr. The latter is one of the largest contract manufacturers in the world. They’ve assembled vehicles for the likes of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. The X-Bow’s carbon-fiber tub is essentially Dallara’s Formula 3 monocoque with room for an extra seat. Suspension is by double A-arm front and rear, with remote-reservoir dampers actuated by pushrods and rocker arms. You get two driven wheels, an undertray, Brembo calipers—the rotors look suspiciously like borrowed Volkswagen bits, small and centrally vented—an 18.5-gallon FIA fuel cell, and a fire system. And not much else.Both transaxles are essentially front-drive, limited-slip Volkswagen Group pieces turned around and shoved between the rear wheels. (The DSG seems to defeat the point of a car meant to make you work for speed, but hey, whatever floats your boat.)Modern technology, but simple. Imagine that.For the cost of a base-model Porsche 911. The whole shebang laps a road course with extreme prejudice. You leave your doofus pants at home because this is a serious piece. Or, if you are wired a certain way, you bring the doofus pants, and you may be put on an extra pair because an X-Bow looks like a robot dirtbike rodent. Or that unlabeled machine in the weight room at the gym—the one with all the extraneous springs and levers, safe only for large-nippled weight-room professionals.Right? One of those evolutionary jokes, where nature got bored for a minute and started screwing around. A pile of razor blades glued together. Dirtbike plastic glued to a hockey puck. Pick your analogy.We like weird. Does it look right in person?Of course, it does. This is a track car. Subtle can go whiz up a rope. Who goes to a track day, free of speed limits, and says, "I wish this car were more Ned Flanders?"Neat! Like a Caterham Seven from the future. I am built entirely of a testicle/ovary, so I want to drive it on the street.No dice. You cannot buy a street-legal X-Bow in America.A vector in the fact that the GTX tips the scales at just 1048 kilos (2310 pounds) and you're looking at an incredibly gifted track tool. The engine pairs to a sequential six-speed gearbox that can take a continuous load of 750 Newton-meters (553 pound-feet) of torque and a peak load of 1000 Newton-meters (738 pound-feet).Some of this may have been due to our particular testing circumstances. Our test cars wore Michelin Pilot Sport road tires, not slicks, and a lot of spring rate. Possibly too much spring for the tire and the average person, but then, most people won't track an X-Bow on Pilot Sports. (Related trivia: Road tires develop less grip than racing tires, which means lower forces generated under cornering and braking, which means the car needs less anti-roll bar and spring, and typically less damp, to work properly.)The engine revs to 6400 rpm but is so midrange-heavy that some corners are best taken a gear higher than you think, to maximize drive off the apex. Peak torque is 3200 rpm, square in the middle of the tach. That four sounds guttural and glottal and raspy, with a smack of midrange turbo lag from the closed throttle and expansive, boost delivery. The car loves trailed brake, smooth hands, and a long apex. The WP-brand dampers are high-grade stuff, quick to react, and relatively high-resolution; they are also extensively adjustable for both bump and rebound. They have a happy bypass in high-piston-speed moments, like mid-corner bumps or high-speed curb jolts, so the car moves off them but never seems abrupt. (WP stuff is also used on KTM's bikes, which makes sense. Dirtbikes are almost nothing but high shock speeds.)A car this adjustable is going to vary greatly with tune and setup, but on the day of our test, the KTM was grippy and friendly. You muscle the car around with your wrists and forearms. If you upset it, washing the nose or skipping the tail on too much entry speed or throttle, it recovers quickly, so long as your hands follow the nose and you stay in the throttle. The steering is quick but heavy; the wheel says just enough about how the tires are working without being nervous or wearing.The best part is how the car couples abusive immersion with modern everything. The structure is far more rigid than that of a Caterham or an Ariel Atom, and the suspension geometry is more evolved. Your inputs are more direct and immediate, and the results they produce are more linear. The car loads the tire like that, the same way, every time you crank the wheel. Every reaction is free of frame flex or secondary vibration—a Caterham or Ariel feels ancient by comparison. You get the “thunk” of a composite tub, that single, all-a-piece vibration common to McLarens and Bugattis, as the X-Bow sucks thumps over pavement lumps or curbs.The whole thing is just a gem. Like a vintage car, it forces you to get up on the wheel and do all the work, all the time, but somehow manages to feel not the slightest bit anachronistic. Except when it comes to the outdoors, which is in your face, always. If it is cold out, you will be cold. If it is hot, you will be hot. If it's raining badgers and locusts because the apocalypse looms, well, you're going to have badgers/locusts/world-end in your lap a lot sooner than you would in, say, a 911.This is sensible, from a certain angle. Also, Austria is not Germany. Austria is a Germany that gives less of a rat's ass about everything. Like, "Are you in the mood to give fooks? Perhaps we stay home and make opera instead." Then they do the math for fun while singing songs of empire.Well, I would have liked to test the car on the actual tire it will be sold with; no X-Bow will be shipped with the Michelins fitted to our test car. The manual shift linkage, a cable setup, tended to balk and go high-effort at odd times. And KTM doesn’t offer varying gearsets for that gearbox, or different optional final drives; this seems odd, given the car’s track-only purpose.The brake pedal was also surprisingly long in travel for a car like this. Likely due to a relatively small master cylinder. And braking seemed a smidge inconsistent, the pedal longer once the system warmed up. (For what it’s worth, every Caterham and Ariel Atom I've tested has offered a better brake feel and a pedal with virtually zero travel. Race cars work like this: modulation is achieved mostly through pressure, not physical motion because human foot muscles are more consistent with the former.)But that seems like nitpicking. As long as we're asking for the barely necessary, I would also like a seat heater. And snow tire fitments, a high-ride kit for off-roading, and a guarantee from KTM that you could hose out the interior without damaging sensitive electrical bits. (There are drain holes in the underfloor, for when it rains.) And I would like a pony.Imagine these people making dirt bikes. Then imagine these people making a car that feels like a dirt bike looks. So for the average person, it’s a handful.More like a demanding piece that wants you to learn its quirks. Logistics at Sonoma were handled by Sonoma’s Simraceway Performance Driving Center—a small racing school whose student fleet currently includes a stack of X-Bows."This is a lot of cars," an instructor told me. "It's great for the school because it's approachable, but it also takes significant skill to operate at speed." Short version: When I was little, I went to the zoo on a class trip. Part of the day involved viewing the small-mammal habitat. Each kid in class was allowed to hold a porcupine. We were told to hold the animal one way and one way only. The other way involved pointy bits and blood.So that, mostly. But also somehow way friendlier and manic frenzy all the time. Pile of giggles.Blame the EPA and DOT. And the cost of certifying a car for sale in the American market. It’s road-legal almost everywhere else. In Europe, KTM will even sell you one with a windshield. But America has long been picky about its imports. Certifying a new road car for sale here costs lottery money. Lot of hoops to jump through. KTM didn’t have the resources.
Well, fine, sure. KTM cars also come with adjustable brake balance, a six-point harness, adjustable pushrods, a loud exhaust, race-ish brake pads, a carbon “halo” headrest, and a deleted second seat. But the key bit: The car is simple. No windshield, no power steering, no traction or stability control, no anti-lock brakes, not even a heater. No computerized windshield washers that talk to the taillights. A six-speed manual is the standard transmission, but you can opt for a six-speed, twin-clutch Volkswagen/Audi automatic. Well, the GTX is by far the meanest, most extreme X-Bow produced to date since 2008, when the moniker was born. The GTX continues KTM’s long-time collaboration with Audi and Kiska but it also benefits from aero know-how coming from Reiter Engineering. At the same time, the X-Bow GTX retains the standard Formula 3-based monocoque of the regular X-Bow whose so-called 'survival cell' offers stiffness and race-grade protection in the event of a crash despite tipping the scales at just 80 kilos (176 pounds). Because they can. Because Audi let them use the 2.0-liter TFSI turbo four-cylinder from the TTS coupe. (288 hp in the TTS. 300 hp here.) And KTM isn’t exactly small. Last year, the company sold 238,334 vehicles worldwide.
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