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KTM has performed well during the X-Bow’s campaign in the European GT4 Sports Light series, winning the championship in its inaugural season. In fact, the KTM X-Bow claimed the top three spots at the end of the 18-round series, and in the process, KTM’s first four-wheeled street racer managed to beat out a slew of Donkervoorts and Lotuses. German X-Bow driver Christopher Haase piloted the KaTooM to a number of victories and won the driver’s championship in the process. Somewhat amazingly, the angular little orange and black roadster was even able to pick on much larger and more powerful competition, like Aston Martins, Ford Mustangs and Corvettes.

We think it’s fair to call the X-Bow a success for KTM, which now looks forward to bigger and better things. Up next is an even faster version of its racer as well as a range of city cars and off-roaders. Lest we should forget where the company’s roots are, there are plenty of new sporting two-wheelers in the pipeline as well.

We’ve been waiting for the KTM X-Bow to make its racing debut for a long while. We found out in March that the lightweight racer’s first competition would be the 2008 FIA GT4 European Cup, which has now taken place. Two X-Bow cars raced in the newly-created “Sport Lights” class over the weekend. The cars were driven by German racing specialists from Reiter Engineering. We didn’t want to spoil the results of the racers debut in case you’re sitting on a recorded version of the race, so find out how the X-Bows did by clicking past the break.
The short answer is the cars won their class. As KTM announced in a release, the two X-Bows finished “ahead of immensely more powerful opposition” which marks “an emphatic confirmation of the concept behind KTM’s sportscar.” The X-Bows needed to have extra weight on board and were riding on treaded tires to balance out the competition, GT4 race officials decided. Still, the cars won two class victories and had “excellent overall placings.” Those placings were seventh and eleventh overall in the first race, and fifth and sixth in the second race. The X-Bow’s ran against cars outside its class, such as the Aston Martin N24, Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette. The next race for the X-Bow takes place in mid-May.

Want your own chance behind the wheel? The production version X-Bows start production this summer.

[Source: KTM]

The crew at KTM is basking in the warm glow of victory after debuting its race-ready X-Bow in the European GT4 Sports Light series and taking home two class victories. The team campaigned a pair of X-Bows at the Silverstone circuit in the UK and aside from getting a one-two podium finish in its class, the team mixed it up with the rest of the 16 GT4 contenders, including Aston Martin N24s, Chevrolet Corvettes and Ford Mustangs. Among the 400+ hp racers, the X-Bow placing seventh and eleventh overall in Saturday’s race, and fifth and sixth on Sunday. KTM is gearing up for the next race in Monza, Italy on May 17 and 18, and is looking to take another couple of wins before sales of the production X-Bow begins later this summer.

[Source: KTM]