Specialty File
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Over the past 15 years, plenty of automakers, among them Ford and Honda, have shown concept cars that marry state-of-the-art racing technology with motorcycle-inspired styling, but none of those concepts ever made it into production. Then along comes the KTM X-Bow (pronounced “crossbow”). It not only looks futuristic, but it’s actually on sale in Europe.
Produced in Austria by motorcycle maker KTM, the X-Bow is a lightweight two-seat sports car that’s aimed at the hard-core enthusiast. KTM initiated the project in 2005 with the goal of diversifying its business because sport-bike sales in Europe started declining. The prototype was displayed at the Geneva auto show in March 2007, with the first delivery to a customer about 18 months later. Roughly 400 have since been sold.
The X-Bow is certainly dramatic-looking. It carries the motorcycle aesthetic over to a car, with its exposed carbon-fiber chassis and suspension pieces and angular panels. It is beautifully built, too. At its heart is a carbon-fiber monocoque that reportedly weighs just 176 pounds. This tub incorporates a bolt-on carbon-fiber crash box at the front, and in back there’s an aluminum subframe that carries the suspension and powertrain.
The suspension is relatively conventional. The only curiosity is that the all-around control arms have pushrod actuation at the front end. Adjustable shocks are optional on the basic Street model and standard on the ClubSport. The brakes are from Brembo, with four-piston calipers up front. The 17-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels come with a standard five-bolt pattern, but a racing-style, single center lug is available. Several different tires are offered—including snows (!)—but our tester sat on optional Toyo Proxes R888 R-compound rubber.
The mid-mounted engine is VW/Audi’s familiar 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder, used in cars such as the GTI and the Audi TT. Here, it makes 237 horsepower and 229 pound-feet of torque and drives through a slick-shifting, six-speed manual transmission. There’s no anti-lock braking, traction control, or stability system, but a limited-slip differential is an option on the Street and standard on the ClubSport.
That stripped-down mentality is apparent in the X-Bow’s cabin. The thin wind deflector is all that protects the occupants from the airstream, so full-face helmets are a must. The seating position is fixed and very low, and the car is so compact that it feels as if you’re wearing it. Even so, all staffers who drove the X-Bow, from six-foot-five technical director Dave VanderWerp to the more vertically challenged, found it easy to achieve a comfortable driving position, thanks to a movable pedal assembly and a steering column that’s adjustable for rake and reach, a rarity in the track-toy class.
The Street model we drove was fitted with a few additional features: adjustable shocks, carbon-fiber fenders, and a removable steering wheel with an interlock that makes it impossible to drive off without the wheel firmly fixed in place. There’s no conventional instrument panel or switches. Instead, there’s a little pod between the seats that houses a digital display, while the steering wheel has buttons for various functions such as turn signals, high-beams, and the horn.
In “road” mode, the digital screen shows a bar graph for revs and displays speed, time, external temperature, and trip-related info. A submenu brings up gas mileage and range, while “race” mode adds lap timing. This is just as well because there’s not much space if you want to bring your own stopwatch. KTM offers some soft bags for the X-Bow, but only a masoÂchist would take this car on a long road trip. It does have a heater, though.
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The cockpit features a removable steering wheel, a central display, and a start/stop button located behind the shifter.
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On road and track, the X-Bow delivers on the promise of offering motorcycle-style thrills, and then some. Its directness and immediacy make even the best of conventional sports cars seem dolt-like. In fact, it’s the nearest thing to a modern racing car that you can buy for the street.
Weight is the enemy of performance. At 1816 pounds, the X-Bow is furiously fighting that adversary, with all the accompanying benefits in grip, acceleration, braking, and control feel. Despite the lack of power assistance, the steering is light and surgically accurate, and the brakes have instinctive feel and weight.
The engine provides excellent midrange thrust, but its sound is disappointing. The acceleration isn’t, though, with a 0-to-60-mph time of 3.6 seconds, 0.3 second faster than a Porsche 911 Carrera S. The body shape, which generates a claimed 426 pounds of downforce at 124 mph, isn’t so good for top-end speed: The X-Bow’s acceleration dramatically slows at speeds much above 100 mph, and it runs out of steam at 143 mph.
On the street, the X-Bow turns in with ferocity, yet the ride is pliant. Ground clearance is an issue if there are speed bumps in your neighborhood, however. It’s a totally visceral, point-and-go driving experience, the sensations heightened by the air whipping viciously over the skimpy wind deflector and visually active front suspension.
On a track, the X-Bow is the business. With well over 1 g of cornering power and the ability to change direction instantly, it’s completely addictive. It sheds velocity so rapidly from high speeds that you have to recalibrate braking points later and later. Even in the slower stuff, where there’s not so much aerodynamically generated grip, the X-Bow is wonderful, with creamy, progressive responses from the chassis and the steering. But it’s not for the clumsy because everything happens so much quicker and in a more narrowly defined envelope than with a normal street car. The tail will slide under power or with a heavy midcorner lift off the throttle—the driver’s reaction has to be as quick as the car’s.
The X-Bow is probably the best-handling car we’ve driven in some time. Perhaps ever. Of course, there are compromises, including the base price of $78,000 (without taxes) in KTM’s native Austria. Yet the level of performÂance and the sheer tactility of the car, plus its exotic construction, would make it seem like a reasonable deal in our eyes if one could buy it in the States. KTM is investigating the possibility of bringing the X-Bow to the U.S., but the company would probably have to import it in pieces, as a kit customers would assemble, to get around legal hurdles. We can certainly see KTM selling a few, especially in sunshine states with good road courses.
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KTM-Sportcar, Maggstraβe 20, 8042 Graz, Austria; www.ktm-x-bow.com
