New car news

24 July 2009 - 10:00

X-Bow gets crosser

We feel your pain. Your ,lethargic KTM X-Bow with its 178kW and 0-100km/h time of 3.9 seconds, is far too slow. You keep getting embarrassed at traffic light drag races by, er, cheetahs and F16s.

Fear not. Help is at hand. KTM has announced an upgrade to its skeletal carbon-fibre car, boosting power of the 2.0-litre turbo engine to a nice 223kW.

Which means a better power-to-weight ratio and a 0-100km/h time of 3.5 seconds.

We've already had a good drive in the uprated X-Bow, and we can report it's all good: far more muscular and torquey than the 178kW - which, let's be honest, was hardly slow.

In short, it's now a hugely, hugely fast thing, with the sort of acceleration that threatens to drag your face right the way up over the top of your head, never to return.

KTM will retro-fit the upgrade to any existing X-Bow. If you've got a X-Bow, you don't really have a choice, do you?