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More details of KTM's racing X-Bow have surfaced. Developed with Reiter Engineering - they of demented Lamborghini fame - it looks notably different from the regular, roofless track car. In a rather wonderful way, we say.
The glass area is huge, with an almost panoramic screen wearing that most untypical of X-Bow options, a windscreen wiper.
Ahead of it is frontal styling even more madcap than its base car's, with huge headlight lenses, sharp creases and big air intakes. It looks wide. Very wide.
At its heart will be the mid-mounted 2.0-litre TFSI turbo four-cylinder engine familiar in X-Bows and nabbed from the VW group. Here it will produce ‘approximately' 320bhp, making it around 10 per cent more powerful than in roofless road specification.
Quite how that will affect performance, given that you'd expect it to go hand-in-hand with vast improvements in aerodynamic efficiency, remains to be seen. But expect a 0-60mph time little over three seconds and a top speed of around 150mph.
The engine drives the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential paddleshift gearbox, made by Holinger. A more motorsport-minded ABS braking setup will also feature.
While the open-air X-Bow typically weighs around 800kg, we've no idea quite what Reiter's racing iteration will tip the scales at. That's because of the SRO's ‘Balance of Performance' regulations (BOP); the car will need to be aligned with its GT4-class rivals to ensure close and competitive racing.
A figure will emerge once the car's BOP test has taken place in spring 2015. Reiter assures us it will be competitively priced among its GT4 foes, though.
"When you reflect on what the customer is being offered here in terms of the most modern racing technology, together with a very impressive safety concept, then you can really speak about it being exceptionally good value for money," asserts Reiter.
"Since the new car is based on the KTM X-Bow, the customer is going to get a racing car that has now been tested on the world's racing circuits for six years."
While we wait eagerly for more spec details, we want to know what you think. Has Reiter created a masterpiece or madness? Or a curious cocktail of the two?
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More of this article on the Top gear website
