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Credit where it's due, KTM hasn't exactly rushed to release its new X-Bow into the expectant arms of the media. Despite a fairly sustained bout of lobbying by the Press since the car virtually stole the Geneva show last year, nobody’s so much as seen a wheel turn.

The temptation to invite embargo-obsessed journalists for a quick pre-production spin must have been overwhelming, but instead the Austrian company showed impressive restraint and decided to wait until everything was properly ready.

And as they wait, so we wait. In this case, that means standing trackside at a windy Silverstone – not for our first drive of the KTM, but for the first chance to see it move. It's another milestone in the carefully orchestrated development of a car that by now has most of the industry totally gripped.

The fascination is easy to understand. The X-Bow is a stripped-back, essentials-only sports car for the driving purist - the exact approach you'd expect a motorbike manufacturer to take with a four-wheeled project. A stroll around the 'pre-production' road car reveals a top-notch carbon-fibre tub, race-spec triangular wishbone inboard suspension and huge Brembo cross-drilled brakes. Prototype, my arse.

"We don't start building the production cars until June," counters the laid-back Toni Stocklmeier, head of product development at KTM. It isn’t a nonchalant kind of laid-back, rather a confidence in the machine he’s had a hand in creating.

One of the engineers lifts the awning of the support truck and wheels out the race cars for their first outing. They look identical to the road going version I've been poring over, save for a few discreet decals. The car has been prepared to compete in GT4,the effective entry-level category of the FIA GT championship, in a special new class for lightweight sports cars.

It's lining up against some unlikely contenders - Mustangs, Vantages and Z4Ms dwarf the two X-Bows in the paddock. None are direct competitors, though; fellow lightweight-classers Ginetta are boycotting the event this weekend, after some bickering with the race organisers.

"We recruited Reiter Engineering to help develop the car, and it was too tempting to try to run a couple in GT4," Toni smiles. It's the latest in a line of partnerships KTM has carefully entered into to make the X-Bow project happen – the FIA-approved carbon chassis was developed with specialists Dallara, who were recommended by Audi... who teamed up to supply the engines.

Team boss Hans Reiter has had just three months to prep the X-Bows for the championship, but has decent experience in racing Lamborghinis in the more hardcore GT1 and GT3 categories. "To be honest, the X-Bow was pretty much finished when we first got our hands on it," Hans confesses, "We just lowered the suspension, tweaked the bodywork a bit, added some fire extinguishers and fitted some slicks.