KTM Crossbow unveiled

By Jack Carfrae

First Official Pictures

07 February 2007 10:52

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.

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.

By Jack Carfrae