The KTM Crossbow: it looks like a go-kart on steroids!
That’s not far off, actually. Austrian company KTM usually manufactures off-road motorbikes, but it has recently made the jump into street bikes, and now the lightweight sports car market. Until now the lightweight Crossbow was just a series of dramatic and fluorescent sketches, but KTM has just released pictures of this scale model ahead of its debut at the Geneva Motor Show next month. Have a closer look and its bike heritage becomes more obvious. The Crossbow is extremely light – tipping the scales at a featherweight 700kg. Every component is lightweight and the chassis and brakes are made from carbonfibre.
So it’s nice and light, but how powerful is it?
The Crossbow borrows Audi’s 2.0-litre FSI turbo straight out of the TT, producing 220bhp. A top speed of 136mph plays second fiddle to brutal acceleration everywhere; KTM claims that the Crossbow will hit 60mph in a blistering 3.8 seconds. This scale model has already undergone more than 100 hours inside the Dallara wind tunnel in Italy to hone the aerodynamics.
Looks like a crazy concept car, though. Will it actually be sold?
Expect to see the first 100 examples of the Crossbow on sale later this year. Full production starts in 2008 and we’re hearing that the price should be around £27,000. But that’s not the end of the story, as KTM claims there could be an even more hardcore version on the cards with upwards of 300bhp. Track-day enthusiasts, form an orderly queue here.