The new KTM X-Bow Arrow is a 330bhp Audi-powered off-road buggy

KTM was an Austrian motorcycle manufacturer and occasional dabbler in mad, excellent track-only supercars. This much you know. Today, we learn that the track-only supercars branch - which was sold off separately when the Austrian motorcycle manufacturer hit financial troubles recently - has expanded its reach to the world of what they call ‘side-by-sides’, and what you and I would probably call ‘a bloody good laugh’.

So, welcome the new KTM X-Bow Arrow: a turbocharged dune buggy (or ‘UTV’) built to churn through off-road rally raids with utmost professionalism and a fair dose of humour. Not least because the limited-edition launch spec cars boast 330bhp.

That arrives courtesy of the Volkswagen Group’s EA888 2.0-litre turbocharged engine (which KTM sources via Audi), matched to a seven-speed DSG gearbox and four-wheel-drive. Considering the thing’s made from fancy scaffolding and likely weighs as much as a running shoe, that’s… a bloody good laugh.

We do not know exactly how much it weighs at this stage, mind, but we do know the standard Arrow spec gets 280bhp, front and rear limited slip diffs, a hydraulic fly-off handbrake (on the 330bhp version only), a steel chassis with double wishbone suspension all round, and KW Reiger shocks offering more than 23.6in (600mm) of suspension travel. Or what you and I would call ‘bouncy bouncy’.

Inside it is fairly spartan as you’d expect, with a centre screen, a few very big buttons, Sabelt seats and harnesses, and even – gasp – air-con, at least on the limited-edition cars. It’s meant to be comfortable, after all.

“You have the performance and responsiveness you expect from a competition vehicle, but with a level of comfort and refinement that makes it just as exciting to drive outside of a race environment,” said Dakar racer and KTM ambassador Puck Klaassen.

Indeed, the whole idea came from fellow Dakar hotshoe Guillaume de Mévius, who now leads the investor group which owns KTM's four-wheeled division and wanted something to drive himself, “with the precision and engineering of a performance car but built to attack terrain where a sports car simply cannot go”.

Not many will get a go in the rarefied limited-edition cars, because KTM will only build 500 ‘Black Limited Edition’ Arrows (the, um, black one in the gallery above), which start at $98,600 and come with every Austrian bell and whistle it can muster. The regular 280bhp car kicks off at $59,800.