KTM X-Bow
Looking through the photo gallery at ktm-x-bow.com reveals a radically designed powerhouse performer in aggressive orange and black. The car has an open cockpit; no hood, no doors, no windscreen just a deflector. The body’s styling looks like something straight out of the Transformers; not something you’d expect to see coming down the block. But, at least in the European Union the X-Bow (pronounced “crossbow”) can do just that. It’s street legal, track worthy and, as the company’s website rather demurely phrases it, “oriented toward sporty drivers.”
The idea behind the open cockpit is to create what manufacturer KTM calls a “purist’s experience” with the “immediacy . . . felt when riding a motorcycle.” the car debuted in 2007 with the first 100 gone before they were even built. At the time the company was sitting on 600 orders and had a planned 2008 production run of 1,000 units. Those figures are a significant testament to the appeal of the X-Bow considering it’s KTM’s first car and that it carries a price tag of $50,000 USD. Don't expect much mercy though, when you begin searching for auto insurance quotes, given the perceived driving habits of fast car drivers. Despite KTM's efforts to engineer as much driver protection into the X-Bow as possible, your first speeding tickets or car accident will probably earn you a significant premium increase, or a policy cancellation, if you manage to find an insurer.
The X-Bow’s vitals are impressive:
Although Audi obviously made major contributions to the machine, there’s not an Audi logo in sight because they wanted airbags and KTM was having none of it. You better be a competent driver with good hands on the wheel when you’re at the helm of the X-Bow; it does zero to 62 mph in just 3.9 seconds.
KTM partnered with Kiska Design and Dallara, well known for its open-wheel Italian racing cars, to build the first 100 X-Bows as an exclusive numbered series. The next lot were built by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria. Initial shipments began in February 2008 in Europe only, where the X-Bow meets the road service guidelines in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain. By the end of 2008, it should be good to go in Switzerland and the rest of the EU as well. Anywhere else and the X-Bow is a race car, pure and simple.
The X-Bow belongs in the class with Ariel, Lotus, Nobel, and Radical. Weekend speed freaks are going to love this vehicle, as evidenced by its jaw-dropping debut at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show. For a first outing, KTM has made a huge impression and promises to be a major contributor in the world of high-performance automobiles in the future.